An Inside Look at Inside Out
by Steveles
Summary: I really loved the film "Inside Out," but I had an idea as I was watching it for the second time: Why not make a review of it... by writing what went on in my head, with my emotions, as the film progressed? So that's what I did! Here's my fanfic/review of Inside Out, featuring my emotions. Normally I hate OC's and Self-Inserts, but with Inside Out, this should get interesting...
1. The Trailer

**A/N: I was originally going to make a review of "Inside Out," but then an idea struck me as I sat down to watch it (for the second time!): since reviews are basically just the author's thoughts and _feelings_ (wink-wink) on a movie/book/whatever, why not write a review from the point of view of _my_ emotions?**

 **At first I was going to tell it like a short one-shot fanfic that was more of an overall summary, but then I guess my emotions got excited and planted an idea in my head, because the next thing I knew, I thought, _'Hey! Why not just make it a multi-chaptered story? I could have_** **my** _**emotions react to the film, one chapter per scene, and that way I could share my thoughts**_ **and** ** _make a nice little fanfic!'_**

 **So, here you go! I hope you enjoy it, but - more importantly - I hope you are honest with any review you might leave; I've got thick skin and no opinion of my own writing, so it's all good. Naturally, of course, this review/fanfic will contain _spoilers_. You've been warned.**

 **With that out of the way, let's take a look at this experiment in film reviews, starting with the film-in-question's trailer...**

* * *

 _Browsing through Facebook one boring October day, a twenty-something film geek noticed an attention-grabbing video pop up in his news feed. Disney had submitted a trailer to a new movie, Inside Out. 'Oh,' he thought to himself, 'This must be the one from the list on Wikipedia.' As he clicked to play the video, his mind briefly recalled seeing the synopsis of the film months ago: it's a story about characters inside some kid's head. Interesting, but then again, Disney and Pixar were known for these types of films; "X is actually alive and has a job in our world, so Y is the story of what X does when Z goes wrong."_

 _Repetitive? Perhaps a little, he'd admit. However, imaginative? Well, the trailer would tell that much at least. As he sat back and watched the trailer, he saw wave after wave of nostalgia-filled clips from childhood. Ah, the memories..._

* * *

Joy, barely keeping his glasses in place, was practically flying up at the screen as the memories came flooding in from the banks far below. Disgust, who was living up to his name, was holding Joy in the chair with one arm and keeping the _'Time'_ lever turned all the way to the slowest setting; they'd need it for this flood of memories if the mind workers were to get all those orbs up in time. The other Emotions, working hard at their own stations, simply had no time to help their leader reign in his overly enthusiastic third-in-command. "Ooh! And there's _Monster's Inc!_ Remember _Monster's Inc?_ Oh my gosh, we used to _love_ that one!" Joy was saying.

"Yes," Disgust replied between gritted teeth, holding back barely-restrained sarcasm, "The memory is up right now, Joy, so please get back to your seat and calm-"

The recall tube sent up a new memory, though, and Joy was taken away with it before Disgust could finish. "And now look! _Finding Nemo!"_ the luminescent, yellow fuzzball was now twitching and wiggling in childish Joy... as if he'd been doing anything else since the trailer started. "Oh, I remember the first time we saw it!"

"Yeah..." Sadness commented, unaware that Ben Stein - or Eeyore, take your pick - would approve of his deep drone of a voice, "and it makes me feel old... because it was so long ago..."

Suddenly, a girly yelp came from fear as she belted down a full gulp of coffee. Hissing in pain, but still needing to express herself, she slightly (ever so slightly) nudged a _'Widened Eyes'_ button. "Whoa, hey, you're right. That's bad! That's- that's just scary to think about! Please, take that memory down, now!"

No sooner said than done, and - incidentally - a new memory shot up as the trailer played on in slow-motion, again giving the mind workers enough time to meet HQ's demands.

"Hey, it's _Up!_ Ooh! I remember _Up!_ I remember it!" Joy shouted before tripping and falling back down to the floor, nearly taking Disgust with him.

"Oh, yeah, I remember it!" Anger spoke up as she turned the ' _Jaw Tighten'_ knob. The Memory of _Up_ came and pulsed back and forth between golden, green, and red, "I remember _that_ corporate sellout squishing a much _better_ movie at the Oscars! The _Secret of Kells_ should've won best animated picture that year! _I'll never forgive the Academy! Never!_ "

"Amen!" Disgust declared and then threw Anger a high-five. Suddenly, Joy poked his head up, his happy mood unphased by the resentment even he (deep down) felt at what all five feelings agreed was a snub.

"Oh, the _Secret of_ _Kells!_ " he declared, _"Dude,_ I remember that one! Oh my gosh! That was great! Oh my gosh!"

As soon as _Up_ was there, however, it was gone, followed by...

"Hey, look! It's... _Wall-E._ "

An awkward silence descended on the group. Fear coughed. Sadness sipped his coffee.

Somewhere in the background, the sound of Memory Tubes whirring could faintly be heard.

"Yeah, that one was, like, _okay_ , I guess..." Disgust scoffed, "but not really all that great. Actually, I hated it. So, yeah."

"Uhuh."

"Yep."

"Mmhmm."

"Yeah."

A few more seconds of apathetic staring at the screen passed soon enough, however, giving way to more and more memories. Each emotion offered their comments on the films prominently displayed. Only Anger, who wasn't actually that angry, slowly started noticing something. _'Hey...'_ she thought to herself, _'Those feelings written on the screen... they...'_

Her jaw dropped open. The others were too busy cheering up Sadness (who was still bawling over a brief flashback to _Toy Story 3_ ) to notice what Anger saw on the screen; she saw... well, he wasn't sure. Mentally, Anger shut completely down in awe at what the trailer showed him. All he could think, over and over, was, _'How did Disney know?'_

Seconds later, everyone else spat out their coffee at once and stared at the screen in dead silence.

"Oh..." was all Sadness could say.

"Whoa..." Joy exclaimed, his smile leaving for the first time since the trailer started.

"H-How... How did-" Fear stammered.

"Ugh! I am _not_ that poorly-dressed!" Disgust spouted off. Then his brain registered what it was he was seeing, and he became just as flabbergasted as the others.

There they were, up on the screen: Joy (only not the _real_ Joy), twirling up into the air. Sadness (or, rather, someone _else's_ version of Sadness), looking quite depressed, Anger (who almost looked the same) hardly flinching, Disgust flicking her (not his _,_ _her_ ) hair, and Fear (whom the real Fear thought looked kinda creepy) panicking over the height he was thrown. Then, on screen, it all became clear - or perhaps more confusing - as the camera zoomed in to this little girl's head, where these foreigners seemed to live. Inside there, this strange, feminine version of Joy pulled all the others (even an indignant Anger) together for a big group hug.

Still unable to process it, the real emotions all blankly stared at the screen.

Then the little girl's Sadness walked on screen. As if her very presence killed the music, it went silent. She reached up and almost waved, but simply gave up on it. Then, as downtrodden as she entered, she walked back out.

Joy (the _real_ Joy) burst into hysterical laughing. "Oh my gosh! It's just like you! Oh- oh that's great! _Guys!_ Guys? Guys. Did you see that _please_ tell me you saw that! This is so _exciting!_ They're making a movie... about us! About emotions! Dudes, that's awesome! That's... _We've gotta see this when it comes out!"_

He was standing up on top of the console, hands up in the air, as if he'd just finished giving a motivational speech.

Everyone else all silently nodded in agreement, as Disgust (too overwhelmed to even scold Joy for stepping on everything) whipped out a post-it paper and made a small Mental Note:

 _"To: Self.  
Watch '_Inside-Out.' _"_

Nearly taking it off and pinning it to the console, he hesitated, bit his lip, and then quickly added to the end of it:

 _"Also, why did they have to make Disgust a_ girl? _Phht. At least_ I _have a good sense in clothing style._ _"_


	2. The Previews and a Creepy Volcano

_Months later, on a not-quite-as-boring June afternoon, the same film geek pulled his car into the parking lot at the magnificent Warren Theater. Minutes later, he was across the asphalt, out of the heat of the day, and in the wonderful world of movies. The smell of popcorn filled the air. That unique scent was wonderful, and he couldn't help but smile inwardly at it. He hoped to make movies one day, and popcorn's delicious buttery aroma always reminded him of the experience he wanted to give to others. But enough of that now._

 _"One ticket to 'Inside Out,' please,' he said._

 _After a quick stop in the restroom and then the concession stand, the man found himself walking down rows and rows of theater seats, nonchalantly slurping his ice-cold Coke. Finding a nice, empty row near the front, he sat down right in the middle and made himself comfortable, ready for the show to start._

* * *

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Disgust and Fear said in unison.

"What?" Joy asked. Anger and Sadness looked puzzled as well.

"We can't just go guzzling down that drink before the film starts!" Disgust exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Fear chimed in, "What if we have to go to the bathroom? We'd miss a part of the movie, and since it will take that drink only an hour to fill up our bladder, we'll likely be in the middle of an important plot point when we leave! _Remember 'Return of the King!'"_

"Oh, yeah..." Sadness said as he sat down, popcorn in hand. Long ago, when they were - how old? Nine? Ten? - they'd missed out on the part with the army of ghosts (not that Fear was complaining) because of a small bladder and a giant drink. That very well could have been a core memory; they had a habit now of cautiously slurping drinks only once in a while during the film, and _never_ guzzling the whole thing down before the lights went out!

"How long 'till the show starts?" Anger demanded.

"Oh, we've got..." Disgust punched in a request to look at the clock. The human turned his head and did so, showing that they were-

" _Thirty minutes?_ " A spark of flame shot up in-sync with the words.

"Aww man..." Sadness moaned, before chucking some more popcorn in his mouth.

"Hey! Hey! This is actually a good thing!" Joy said. The others looked at him. "We can daydream, keep thinking on our current project!"

"Oh."

"Hey, yeah..."

"Not a bad idea."

"Nice..."

Happiness rolled his chair over to the daydream chips and plucked one of the cloud-shaped pieces of plastic from the bin. Juggling it a few times, he swiveled back to the console and plugged it in. "This should give _us_ plenty of time to get snacks, right guys?"

Nobody argued with that. Happiness volunteered to stay behind and watch the daydream as the others left to grab their snacks (and - in Fear's case - use the restroom for the umpteenth time to make sure she wouldn't miss the film... (but then grab a big bottle of water to make sure she had an excuse to leave during the scary parts)).

* * *

"Joy... _Joy..._ Joy!"

"Huh? Wha-?" Joy suddenly snapped to attention. He'd been daydreaming as he watched the daydream, feeding the human ideas and enjoying the not-yet-written story that was unfolded before him. He twirled his chair around to see Disgust standing there, a diet Dr. Pepper in one hand and a bag of mints in the other.

"Were you daydreaming during the daydream?" He asked.

"What? _No!_ Of course, not, heh, don't be silly... I was just inspecting the screen."

"The screen?"

"Yes! There are white, fuzzy things all over it! I _just_ noticed that! Shouldn't we get the mind workers up here to clean-"

"Joy."

"Yes?"

"It's always been like that."

"...Oh..." Joy said, with genuine surprise, adding in his head, ' _It has_ _?'_

"Now, as I was _saying_ \- we've got about ten more minutes before previews, so move over and let me sit there so I can critique this daydream and bring it back down to Earth for you. You can go get your snacks."

"Hey! _I_ can critique the daydreams perfectly well!"

Disgust slurped his soda in response. His eyebrows said, "Oh, really?"

"I mean it _, dude!_ Why wouldn't I-"

Disgust took his mouth from the straw. "Let me see your notebook."

Joy blanked out for a second, then his cheeks turned crimson. He sheepishly passed the exposed page to Disgust.

"Joy?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know..."

"We don't have time to write ' _Inside Out'_ fan fiction! Are you crazy?! We need to focus on IZTDM right now!"

"Yeah, but..." Joy's lanky arms flailed around as he tried explaining just how wonderful each daydream ever made was, "But there are all these great ideas! They'd all make such good movies or- or fanfics, I guess... so why not, right? Come on! What's the worst that could happen?"

"No, Joy," Disgust scolded, "We've been through this; when we get bogged down with too many projects, they all fail. Am I right?"

Joy sighed. "Yes, I know... But-"

"And we've talked about self-inserts, haven't we?"

"...I think."

"We have. And you know it." Joy didn't say anything, so Disgust continued, "Now say it with me, Joy..."

With that, Joy - more resembling Sadness - and Disgust (cheerfully) said together, " _Self Inserts, OC's, Shipping, and Mary Sues are a plague on fandoms and shouldn't ever come from our fan art or fiction."_

 _"Unless they're parodies,"_ Joy added.

 _"Unless they're parodies,"_ conceded Disgust with a brief nod.

"But, listen man - just hear me out-"

"No buts, lightbulb; go get yourself some snacks before the film starts."

"Well... alright, then!" With that, Joy brightened up (as he was wont to do even after getting verbally put back in his place... which happened quite a bit) and bounded downstairs to get some refreshments. As the bubbly emotion vanished down below, he startled Fear, who was on her way up. Disgust glared at the notebook page. "Ugh. fan fiction about _us?_ That's... disgusting."

"And creepy," Fear added, sitting down.

* * *

"No, I was wrong! _That's_ creepy!" Fear exclaimed, cowering below the console.

Up on the screen, the previews had started. This first one was for some film called " _The Underdogs_." It was currently showing a small Foosball Figurine, coming to life thanks to some guy's tears. Truth be told, none of the emotions could quite follow the plot. The dead eyes suddenly coming awake, the uncanny CG animation, and the fact that this film was clearly dubbed, all mixed together to make one creepy experience... for Fear, at least.

"Oh, get up, you baby!" Anger said, yanking the purple emotion up by her arm, "There's nothing scary about this."

"Except for how clichéd it is," Disgust scoffed.

"Is this what the film industry has come to?" Sadness said as sobs cracked his voice.

"Yes," Anger put bluntly.

Joy was too busy guzzling his Red Bull to comment. _'After all,'_ he thought as he felt the nasty-but-delicious liquid run down his throat, ' _If you can't say anything nice, let someone else say it for you, then just nod in agreement.'_

"Twelve," Disgust said, pressing the _'Eyeroll'_ button again. He'd kept track of how many times he had to press it since the start of the previews. That one was for the random hippie Figurine saying, "I don't condone violence, but that was pretty dope."

Quickly, Disgust ripped out another Mental Note:

 _"When getting movies into foreign languages,  
Subtitles are_WAY _better and less distracting than dubbing.  
Subs are better than dubs!"_

With a _click-click_ , he shut his pen and then crunched down on another mint, just in time to nearly choke on it as Joy yelled out, "Hooray! It's gone! Onto the _next_ preview! Maybe it'll be good, right guys?" Then, right away, Joy punched in, " _Finally,"_ on the _'Whisper'_ panel.

"Finally..." the film geek whispered out loud.

The next preview showed up.

* * *

Disgust was now addressing the others. "Okay, guys, so - while the logos are still popping up - in review: _The Underdogs?_ "

"I don't wanna..." Fear murmured.

"No way!" Anger spouted.

"It's too sad to think about," Sadness said, "Where has creativity gone these days?"

"It looked... kinda... neat?" Joy asked, looking at the others. Then, defeated by their questioning glares, said, "Yeah, it looks pretty bad."

"Okay," Disgust said, crossing it off the list, "We _won't_ be watching that one. Next: _Zootopia_?"

"No comment," Fear shrugged.

"If they keep the puns away, it should be peachy," Anger muttered.

 _'I hear you,'_ Disgust thought to himself.

"I just hope they actually have an animal get eaten," said Sadness.

"I laughed! The tranquilizer was _hilarious!_ Looks like it will be ' _Chicken Little_ ,' only good!" Joy exclaimed.

"Okay," Disgust announced, "That's going on the list to check out. And last of all: _The Good Dinosaur_."

"I have no clue," Sadness said, "I don't know enough about it."

"Looks like another good movie from Disney and Pixar!" Joy said, "I'm game, bro."

"I just- I just don't know," Fear said, "I mean, if we see it, we'll have to review it... well, we won't _have_ to, but we'll probably want to, and- but- if- and people will probably get on us if we say it was _good_ , because we actually _don't believe in evolution_ , but _if we address the elephant in the room_ \- and we'll get- _we'll be in trouble for believing in_ Creation, so we can't- _we shouldn't-_ But I'm not saying we should _lie-_ But either way- _The film is fiction, of course, but-_ " With each syllable, Fear's voice squeaked higher and higher and higher, and she straightened up more and more tightly in her seat. Her breathing became fast and pounding.

"Calm down," Sadness said, handing her a brown bag, "In and out, in and out, like we practiced... you'll be fine. I'm sure we'll be okay. It's not like we aren't used to being bashed... by angry people... by angry, angry people... who make us feel worthless-"

"Well, that wraps up the previews, doesn't it, guys?" Joy said, trying to take their minds off the subject (wisps of smoke were trailing up from Anger's hair), "And you all know what that means..." He froze in place, a smile on his face, waiting for a response from the others.

"I'll mark _'The Good Dinosaur'_ down as a _maybe,"_ Disgust said.

" _It means it's time for a short film!_ " Joy announced, his voice as bright as a trumpet. Sure, nobody really payed attention, but it was the thought that counts. "You all know how much we love those!"

Everyone looked back up at the screen. Well, everyone but Sadness, who was still tending to Fear.

"Calm down, there, sis. Calm down... okay, you feeling better?"

"Y-Yeah," Fear said, setting the bag down and taking a long swig of water. With a sigh, she added, "Yes, I'm feeling better."

They looked back up at the screen to see a giant, smiling volcano with pitch-black pits for eyes.

Fear fainted.


	3. Lava or Hate It

**A/N: Gah, I hate author notes. They detract from the story so much! But this one was a necessity, and I'll make it brief. From here on out, I'll be trying to read through my chicken scratch I made as I took notes in the theater. I'll try to make it as accurate to the film as possible, but bear with me; until I get this on DVD (which I _will_ ), there will be errors and misquoted dialogue. Please have patience with me until I can get the film on DVD to review it and correct everything. Thank you.  
**

* * *

"Uh... should we do something?" Sadness asked as he scratched some stubble. He gestured to Fear, collapsed on the floor.

"Nah," Anger said after swallowing some popcorn, "She'll just freak out again. Wait 'till the film starts, _then_ wake her up."

Sadness was about to object, thought about it, then shrugged and went back to watching the short film as it continued to play out.

 _"He sat high above his bay_  
 _Watching all the couples play..."_

"Aww! Look at all the cute little animals!" Joy exclaimed, smiling happily, "This is gonna be so-"

 _"And wishing that he had someone too._

 _"And from his lava came_  
 _This song of hope that he sang out loud_  
 _Every day for years and years..."_

Joy's smile faded instantly. "Aww," Sadness moaned, "That's so depressing. That must be awful, being all alone in the middle of the ocean with nobody who likes you... I bet he's been that way his whole life, all by himself. Just a rock that can't even move or-"

"Yes. Thank you. We get it." Joy said quickly.

 _"I have a dream..."_

"Oh, give me a break!" Disgust spat, "That voice does _not_ match that character! It should be deeper, more gravelly-sounding."

 _"I hope will come true..."_

"I don't think so," Joy said, "What, you think he'd sound good as _Batman?_ "

 _"That you're here with me, and I'm here with you..."_

"Of course not!" Disgust replied, "But come _on_ , that voice doesn't sound... rough enough. Or deep enough."

 _"I wish that the Earth, sea, and the sky up above-a..."_

"You're just nitpicking-"

"Shh! We're missing it."

 _"Will send me someone to lava..."_

Disgust scoffed, then rolled his eyes. If there's one thing he couldn't stand, it was puns.

Joy chuckled and smiled. If there's one thing he thought was funny, it was puns.

As the scene shifted, years passed and the volcano changed. No longer the tall, proud mountain of long ago, the volcano was a broken husk of his former self, a sad little rock in the ocean without a scrap of green in sight.

 _"Years of singing all alone_  
 _Turned his lava into stone until..."_

Joy glanced over at Sadness, who was starting to get more droopy. That is, until...

 _"He was on the brink of extinction..."_

"Phht! Haha! Heh," Sadness chuckled, even going so far as to press the _'Snicker'_ button. He sighed, letting out the last of the laughter. Then he noticed Joy's almost offended-looking glance. " _What?_ You don't find that funny? _Not even a little?_ " He looked around at the others, whose confused faces were struggling to get the joke. A few shook their heads and shrugged. "Just me, huh? Alright, heh..."

 _"But little did he know,_  
 _That - living in the sea below -_  
 _Another volcano was listening to his song..."_

Joy started humming along, his light brightening as the female volcano came on screen. _'That's so cute!'_ he thought to himself. _'Aww, the volcano's not alone after all!'_

 _"Every day she heard his tune_  
 _Her lava grew and grew, because_  
 _She believed his song_ _was meant for her."_

"Stop that," Disgust said.

Joy stopped humming, but his grin only widened.

"Thanks."

 _"Now she was so ready to meet him above the sea_  
 _As he sang his song of hope for the last time."_

 _"I have a dream I hope will come true_  
 _That you're here with me and I'm here with you_  
 _I wish that the earth, sea, and the sky up above-a_  
 _Will send me someone to lava..."_

Now it was Disgust's turn to interrupt. "Oh, gross," he said.

"What?"

"The bubbles! Below the volcano."

"What about them?"

"Well, they look like _farts_."

Everyone started groaning and complaining at that.

"Oh, come on!" Anger said, "Why'd you have to go and ruin the scene for everyone else?"

"Sorry," Disgust shrugged, with a tone of voice that clearly showed he wasn't, "I just think it's gross is all."

 _Boom!_ On-screen, the female volcano blew up through the ocean, sending wave after wave of water all over the place. Incidentally, Fear jumped awake at this with a yell. "Whoa! What's going on? What'd I miss? _Are we dying?_ "

"Easy!" Anger shouted, "Calm down, for crying out loud. The volcano erupted. Big whup."

"...Oh..." Fear said. Sure enough, a bunch of dust had covered the screen's entirety, obscuring even the ocean and sky from sight. Fear got back in her seat and picked up her water bottle. She felt ready to continue watching. That changed when she saw the volcano again, with those same black pits for eyes poked up out of the sea. A shudder rolled down her spine. "I gotta use the restroom," she said. Then, swallowing all the water at once, darted out. Nobody commented on this - it was pretty standard behavior.

 _"Rising from the sea below_  
 _Stood a lovely volcano_  
 _Looking all around but she could not see him..."_

"No, no! _No!"_ Anger boiled, " _Turn around! Do it! Just do it!_ " The little red square actually stood up and gestured at the screen. _"He's literally right behind you!"_

"Sit down-"

" _You_ sit down, Sadness! She won't just _look right behind her!_ "

"...But I am sitting..."

 _"He tried to sing to let her know_  
 _That she was not there alone but with no lava his_  
 _Song was all gone."_

"Oh no..." Sadness said. The volcano on screen tried so hard to catch the attention of the other one, but to no avail; he had no strength left to sing to her. Sadness felt his lip quiver at the sight.

 _"He filled the sea with his tears_  
 _And watched his dreams disappear as she_  
 _Remembered what his song meant to her..."_

"Oh, that's- Oh no!" Sadness said, voice cracking. Joy offered him a tissue. He declined. "No, I'm- I'm good, I can- I can take it... I got through _Wreck-it-Ralph,_ I'll- I'll get through th-th-this..." his voice trembled.

 _"I have a dream I hope will come true_  
 _That you're here with me and I'm here with you_  
 _I wish that the earth, sea, and the sky up above-a_  
 _Will send me someone to lava..."_

The lava cracks underwater encompassed the old volcano from the opening, forming a heart-shaped river of lava gaping up from the depths. Joy sighed. Disgust rolled his eyes. Joy rolled his eyes at Disgust rolling his eyes. They exchanged a brief glare that was interrupted as another eruption exploded on-screen. Fear returned just in time to let out a soft yelp. Everyone else flinched as well when the volcano rocketed back up to the surface, bubbling water enveloping the screen.

"Heheh," came from Sadness again.

"Do we want to know?" Fear asked, taking her seat.

"Probably not," said the blue emotion, fighting to keep his composure as he thought about all the cute little fish that were probably swimming around when the volcano erupted. The scene transitioned once more, this time showing the two volcanoes locked in a warm tropical embrace, above the ocean's cold water.

 _"Oh they were so happy_  
 _To finally meet above the sea_  
 _All together now their lava grew and grew..."_

"Oh, thank goodness!" Joy sighed as he collapsed into his chair, "I was worried for a second, but that's great! Aww, they look so cute!"

"Well..." Disgust said, but couldn't think of a good rebuttal.

 _"No longer are they all alone_  
 _With aloha as their new home_  
 _And when we visit them this is what they sing..."_

Before he could be stopped, Joy was leaning on the controls, humming along.

 _"I have a dream I hope will come true..."_

"Joy! No!" Disgust exclaimed, lunging at him to get him off the controls. In the process, he tripped and landed on them as well. The two struggled to get up, but only found themselves on the buttons _again_ in a tangled up mess.

 _"That you'll grow old with me..."  
_

Eventually, Joy managed to shove Disgust off.

 _"And I'll grow old with you..."_

 _Clink._ A new memory came rolling in.

 _"We thank the earth, sea, and the sky we thank too..."  
_

"Of course," Disgust muttered to himself, seeing the gold-and-green marble rolling over to the shelves.

 _"I lava you..."_

"Ugh..." he slammed his head into his hands.

"I lava you..."

His eyes widened suddenly as he heard a third voice.

 _"I lava you..."_

"Joy, shut up." Disgust didn't even need to uncover his face to see that goofball bouncing and singing along to the music.

"Hey - that was _rude,"_ Sadness said.

"You're right, I'm sorry. Joy, _please_ shut up."


	4. A Sickeningly Sweet Start

As the Disney Logo came in, it was accompanied by a soft, bouncing melody. The piano keys gently played out through the air. Joy brightened visibly, his signature smile returning. The tune slowed to a close, just as the Pixar lamp glanced up, and then everything was black. The sound of airy strings floated through the air.

 _"Do you ever look at someone and wonder,_ 'What is going on inside their head?' _I know. Well, I know in Riley's head."_

The disembodied voice of Riley's Joy floated through the air and narrated over the blackness as the film started. Disgust straightened up in his seat, sipped his soda, and prepared to pay attention. Up on the screen was a little baby. "Aww..." Joy said, "She's so cute!"

"Babies are always cute," Sadness said with a nod.

The camera zoomed in.

"What's happening?" Fear asked.

A soft golden glow came in the black screen, and Joy - _Riley's_ Joy - materialized before their eyes. She walked slowly, mouth agape in wonder. Her eyes drifted to her arms and legs. She observed all there was to observe... which wasn't much, really. All there was in the baby's mind was a blank white screen and a single button. Disgust blinked in recognition. It was so surreal, so strange, to see the inner workings of someone else's mind so accurately placed on a movie screen. Then the green emotion realized his mouth was open. Remembering how many times he'd gotten on the others for the impolite habit, he shut it. Still, he couldn't help but keep his wide eyes glued to the screen. Were he to look at the others, he'd see that they - too - were stunned. They thought they'd prepared for this, but it's one thing to see a trailer, and another thing entirely to watch such well-kept secrets unfold for the world to see on a film screen.

Silently, Riley's Joy pressed the button, and the baby began giggling.

 _"And there she was."_

"Wait a second..." Anger spoke (the first one to say anything since the scene began) "...are they implying that life doesn't start until _after_ birth?"

"Hey, it does seem like that..." Sadness added.

Joy tried interjecting, "Oh, you're being ridiculous! I'm sure that's not what-"

"Because if we're going to have to put up with little political jabs like _that_ the whole movie, then I'm _done!_ "

"Oh, now why would they even bother doing that in a _kids'_ movie?" Joy said.

"To get 'em while they're young! Oh, and now you're accusing us of watching a _little kiddie_ movie?"

"That's not what I said-"

"Enough!" Disgust spat out, "You guys are overreacting. Besides, we're missing the film! Remember, the whole point of this was to take a look and see what Disney knows. Just let it... Just brush it off, it'll be fine."

"Hmph," Anger huffed, and then looked back.

 _Clink._ A dim, red memory rolled in.

 _Clink._ In _Riley's_ head, a vivid golden memory did the same. Riley's Joy wasted no time in scurrying over and picking it up. She stared at it in wonder, then played it back.

"The kid won't be remembering that forever," Sadness shrugged. Everyone else concurred. It was unfortunate (but necessary): that precious memory probably lasted less than a day. It's just the way things went. Heck, even Disgust couldn't remember the exact memory that he first made. Probably had something to do with being cold and covered in slime, though.

Riley's Joy placed the gold orb back and let it roll on its proper tracks again. The little girl's mind lit up and swiveled to life as pinwheels and a variety of colored circles trailed the path that the marble rolled on.

 _"It was amazing; just Riley and me forever..."_

Disgust snickered to himself. Moments later, the baby began crying. Sadness beamed, recalling his fine handiwork from long ago. He was proud of how loud he used to be able to make the film geek cry.

 _"Well, for thirty-three seconds."_

A new emotion was up on screen, and everyone knew who she was before she even opened her mouth and introduced herself as Riley's Sadness. Joy (the real one) chortled at the sour introduction and the contrast between the two. "Heck, it's _just_ like us though, isn't it, dude?"

"Sure is, man. Heh, sure is..." Sadness nodded in agreement.

Soon enough, the other emotions were introduced up on the big screen. Fear guided Riley safely around a table and power cord (getting yet another laugh from Joy as the _real_ Fear blushed slightly, recalling how often she'd been absent from the control room early on... leading to many "boo-boo's," scoldings from parents, and just plain awkward situations). Riley's Disgust came on screen, and the real Disgust paid rapt attention, ignoring Joy's jest about how "cute" he looked. After watching the green girl up on screen talk on for a few seconds, it was enough for Disgust to know all he needed to. "Pssh, drama queen," he said. Nonetheless, after Riley's Disgust convinced her to avoid broccoli, he quietly added, "Good job." As the dad threatened Riley with a lack of desert, her Anger came on the scene. The real emotions (well, Fear, Sadness, and Joy) busted up laughing at the tantrum. Disgust simply nodded and said, "Yep." Anger looked around, trying to understand.

"I'm not like that, am I?" she asked, looking around, "I'm not! Honest."

That only made the others laugh harder, and actually managed to get Disgust to faintly smile.

 _"And you've met Sadness. She, well she..."_

The montage of the child crying over useless things pushed them even further, and everyone (except, of course, Disgust) was reduced to tears of laughter at the sight. It was all too relatable. After a few more jolts of laughter and some coughs, Sadness got a grip on himself. Still smiling, he said, "So glad we're not like that anymore." This was met with a few "yeah's" and "Amen's."

 _"I'm not actually sure what she does, and I've checked; there's no place for her to go, so she's good. We're good. It's all great."_

Joy stopped smiling. Anger looked perplexed. Fear did a double-take. Disgust choked on his drink and glanced over at Sadness, who was staring in shock at the screen. "What?" he said.

"Yeah, what gives?" Anger chimed in.

"Do you guys think I'm useless?" Sadness asked, as if the thought had never occurred to him before.

"Of course not!" Disgust protested, "You help us vent..."

"Without you, nobody would ever know when we were upset."

"Who else would know what to do when someone else is upset?"

Sadness nodded, "Thanks. I thought so, but I wasn't sure, and... well... that's just _strange_ ," he said, gesturing to the screen, "Were we ever like that?"

There was only a brief pause before they all exchanged glances and said, "Nah."

"We leaned on _you_ too much, actually," Anger said to Disgust. If the green emotion heard, he didn't show it. He just stared straight ahead at the screen, continuing to watch the movie.

* * *

After a brief tour of the Islands of Personality, a montage of Riley's childhood, and a wince-inducing moment of brain-freeze, there was a scene of Riley falling asleep. Then, inside her head, her emotions went about the business of wrapping things up.

 _"And... that's what I'm talkin' about! Wooh! Another_ perfect _day!"_ Riley's Joy said on-screen.

"Perfect for _you_ ," Disgust said to himself.

 _"Nice job, everybody. Let's get those memories down to Long-Term."_

"Wow! Look at all those gold cores!"

"Whoa..."

"I wish we had days like that more often."

"Yep."

 _"Alright, we did not die today! I'd call that an unqualified success!"_

 _"And that's it! We love our girl. Oh, she's got great friends, great family, a great house... things couldn't be better..."_

Disgust kept his mouth clamped shut. Riley's Joy had made an impression on him, and it wasn't a very pleasant one; he felt a bit overwhelmed. She was _too_ bright, too happy, and it was pain-inducing.

"Disgust! Your drink!"

"Wha- oh! Sorry!"

He'd set the soda down on a button, and for the past few seconds, the under-glow was a sickly green color. He quickly looked over at the shelves lining the other memories. A bit of red, mostly yellow, and... well, a few splotches of green. But what else was new? He smiled and returned his attention to the monitor, thinking to himself, _'Just doing my job to keep him aware of what_ not _to add in movies...'_

 _"After all, Riley's eleven now. What could happen?"_

 _'Like stock phrases,'_ he added. He groaned aloud and quietly flicked a switch. "What could happen?" "This just keeps getting better and better." "Get away with it? I already have." "You're the chosen one!" Disgust rolled his eyes, thinking of all the clichéd phrases that movies have pounded into his skull over the years. Phrases _he'd_ make sure were _never_ in any script they wrote.

In answer to the stock question in question, a moving sign slammed onto the screen.

 _"Aaah!"_

Joy pressed the _'Chuckle'_ button.

Riley's belongings were shoved into a loaded car.

 _"Aaah!"_

Joy pressed the button harder.

 _"Okay, not what I had in mind."_

 _"Aaah!"  
_

Joy laughed again, and the film geek laughed, too, fully enjoying himself. "Oh, this is going to be a good, good movie, I can tell!" Joy exclaimed.

"It probably won't be scary at all, actually," Fear said, "Not that you'd really expect that from _Pixar_."

"I hope we don't run into any more sneaky political bull-"

"Just get your tissues ready, ladies and gentlemen," Sadness interrupted, "I know that we're gonna need 'em soon enough."

A thoughtful pause descended on the group. Yeah, this was a nice little happy film, but it's from _Pixar_. "Remember Toy Story 3" could practically be a rallying cry. Sadness managed to hold himself together, though, and refrain from pressing any buttons. Disgust was on the brink of commenting, but it was Joy who broke the silence by saying, "I love Pixar! Looks like they're back in action! And it's about time, too, right guys?" Everyone nodded and agreed... except Disgust, the constant skeptic.

 _'Alright,'_ Disgust thought, _'I'll still cut it some slack...'_ he tracked the fresh golden orb as it rolled in and _clinked_ against the green one, _'But not much.'_


	5. Of Smiles Real and Forced

The moving montage began. Day and night, the car seemed to be driving, through lush green mountainsides and hot brown deserts, crossing the entirety of the United States. In real life, Joy was swaying to the music. "This movie's got a wonderful soundtrack, doesn't it, guys?" A few agreeing echos came back to him. Still, Disgust said nothing as he simply watched the movie and slurped his soda. Soon enough, Riley's family had passed the Golden Gate Bridge and were in San Francisco.

 _"I sure am glad you told me earthquakes were a myth, Joy," her Fear was saying, "otherwise I'd be terrified right now._ _"_

Joy laughed.

 _"Uh... yeah..._ _"_

Disgust groaned inwardly, hoping the yellow emotion right next to him wouldn't start pointing out all the nitpicking he was doing.

After half a minute more passed in the movie, interspersed with Disgust trying his utmost to not be annoyed at some of the comments or roll his eyes at Riley's daydreams about what the house would look like ("Even when we were that young, we didn't think a building could be made of candy or have a dragon!"), Riley's family finally pulled up to the house; a slim little wedge of a thing crammed between two other buildings.

"Hey, I wonder if they'll find Stuart Little living in there, heh," Joy commented.

 _"_ _Maybe it's better on the inside._ _"_ _Riley's Joy said._

 _None of her emotions felt that way, however. And - in all honesty - nobody could blame them; the place was barren and sort of run-down looking. The film geek's emotions themselves would have hated to move to such a place as a kid._

 _"_ _It looks like somebody died in here," said Riley's Disgust._

 _Her Fear sputtered out, "_ _Can you die from moving?_ _"_

 _Riley's Joy tried calming the situation down. "Guys, you're overreacting. Nobody has died-"_

 _"_ _A dead mouse!_ _" her Disgust yelled._

"Hey, would you look at that; found Stuart Little," the real Disgust said with a smirk, causing Sadness to snort some soda out through his nose.

"Oh for crying out loud- Oh- ow!" He said between chuckles. On screen, Riley's emotions continued to... well, freak out.

 _"It's the house of the dead!" her Fear said as he jumped up on top of Anger in a panic, "What are we gonna do? We're gonna get rabies!"_

 _"Get offa me!" Riley's Anger said, followed by a burst of fire that made Fear do exactly that._

This elicited another laugh from the real-life Joy, and even a flickering smirk from Disgust, who noted that Riley's Joy didn't even need to break eye contact with the others or stop talking while finding the fire extinguisher and dousing Fear. Clearly, this happened frequently, and that earned another rare smile from the perpetual critic.

 _"All through the drive, Dad talked about how cool our new room is. Let's go check it out!"_

The abrupt, music-less cut to Riley standing miserably in the empty room got yet another laugh, especially from Anger, who almost knocked over her soda as she chuckled. _'Nice editing,'_ Disgust thought to himself. He'd admit it; he wasn't having a _terrible_ time watching this. Granted - it was a movie aimed for children, but at the very least he was enjoying watching Riley's emotions squirm.

 _"No."_

 _"I'm starting to envy the dead mouse."_

Another chortle. This time, however, it was from Sadness.

 _"Get out the rubber ball; we're in solitary confinement."_

Disgust winced at another one of the real-life Joy's obnoxious laughs.

 _"Hey! It's nothing that our new butterfly curtains couldn't fix!" Riley's Joy said, trying to keep everyone looking on the bright side, "I read somewhere that an empty room is an opportunity."_

 _"Where did you read that?" a skeptical Anger said._

 _"It doesn't matter; I read it, and it was awesome." Fiddling with the daydream controls, Riley's emotions began envisioning what the room would look like fully decorated. To give them credit, it looked pretty decent, considering what they had to work with. They went to go get their stuff from the moving van..._

 _...Just in time to see their disgruntled dad get off the phone. "_ _The moving van won't be here until Thursday!" he said._

 _"You're kidding," Riley's mom replied, "_ _You said it'd be here yesterday."  
_

 _"I know that's what I said; that's what they told me."_

 _Inside, Riley's emotions weren't taking the news too well, either. "Mom and Dad are stressed out!" "They_ are _stressed out!" "What are we gonna do?"_

"Aww," the real Sadness said as he slouched forward a little, "I can relate to that. Poor kid. It's no fun when your parents are stressed and you can't really do anything about it."

 _"I've got a great idea!" Riley's Joy chimed as she ran forward and put a lightbulb in the control panel._

"Oh," Sadness said, somewhat taken off-guard by the abrupt happiness. Then, with a shrug, "Well... okay, I guess. Still, how can she stay positive so much?"

"I dunno..." Fear muttered to herself. On-screen, Riley improvised a game of hockey with a piece of crumpled up paper lying in front of her.

 _"Riley Anderson makes her move... she's closing in..."_

Joy's smile shrunk almost imperceptibly as he thought, _'Wow, she sure is one happy kid.'_

Whatever the case, Riley's Dad cheered up immediately, followed - of course - by her Mom brightening up. Soon enough the family was laughing as Riley's Dad picked them both up and began goofing around.

Disgust was refrained from rolling his eyes again. For a split second, the movie screen was obscured as a memory recalled, one of an equally goofy time from childhood, some goofy game played with their parents. Disgust's cheeks turned crimson as he muttered, "We're way older now, at least." As soon as it arrived, the recalled memory vanished, returning the view to the movie screen. Riley's dad had set them down and was reaching for his ringing phone.

"Oh, that can't be a good thing," the real Fear said. Her prediction came true as the scene unfolded; the job yanked Riley's dad away from his family, and the film geek's Sadness winced a little, remembering his Dad having a demanding job as well, one that frequently kept him away from home weeks at a time.

"Well," the real Joy said, "Looks like that girl's gonna need her Sadness now, for sure. I mean-"

"Don't count on it," Disgust interrupted, scratching his scruffy soul patch, "This is only the start of the story, and if things start going good _now_ , there wouldn't be a story to tell."

"What do you mean?"

"Watch and see. I'll bet you anything that overblown control freak finds a way to step in."

 _"Mom and Dad don't love us anymore, oh, that's sad. I should drive, right?"  
_

The film geek snickered at that, but then immediately stopped as he saw Joy interfere once more.

 _"Joy... what are you doing?"_ _Riley's Sadness hesitantly asked._

 _"Uh... just give me one second..._ _You know what I realized? Riley hasn't had lunch! Remember?" Joy recalled a memory of them passing a pizza place on the way to the house. Riley promptly suggested they go get some pizza for lunch._ _Without missing a beat, her other emotions heartily agreed._

Disgust cast a knowing "told you so" glance at his glowing coworker.

"Well, I guess that makes sense... a little..." Joy said, squinting hard and trying to figure out why his on-screen counterpart was being so... well, strong. _'You know it's bad when_ I _think you're pushing it a little too much.'_ His confusion gave way to - you guessed it - another laugh at the slice of pizza that was offered to Riley.

 _"What the heck is that?" Her Fear demanded._

 _"Who puts broccoli on Pizza?" Riley's Joy asked._

 _Her Disgust simply said, "That's it, I'm done."_

The film geek's Disgust concurred, actually gagging at the sight. Maybe he and the film were on the same wavelength finally.

 _"Congratulations, San Fransisco: You've ruined pizza!" Her Anger chimed in._

Disgust laughed on the inside. It was a pretty funny moment...

 _"First the Hawaiians, and now you!"_

His smirk faded. After a moment's pause, he let out a sigh and flicked a switch. The film geek sighed in disappointment as well.

"Hey, what gives?" his Joy demanded.

"That line went on too long," Disgust stated, "It would have been perfect if it was left at, ' _Congratulations, San Fransisco: You've ruined pizza!'_ but the extra dialogue made the joke run on a bit too much..." then, noticing Joy's near-glare, he added, "in my opinion. And my opinion is _his_ opinion, remember?"

It was quiet in the control room as the others looked back and forth between Joy and Disgust, who were eyeing each other suspiciously. At long last, Joy said, "This is because we actually _like_ Hawaiian pizza, isn't it?"

Disgust rolled his eyes and groaned, "Of course not, dingus! It's strictly a matter of pacing and writing. I couldn't care less what some 11 year girl thinks of Hawaiian pizza."

"You're being awfully petty, you know that?"

"Excuse me? Says the one who practically forced a laugh when our brother told that joke the other day!"

"I think _you-"_

" _Guys, stop it! Just cut it out!_ " Fear jumped in. They looked over at her, and she visibly shrunk back. In a mouse of a voice, she said, "I-I-I mean... we're- we... we're m-m-missing the movie..."

Joy and Disgust glared at each other once more, then returned their attention to the screen. Riley and her mom were walking out of the miserable little pizza place and talking about the trip now.

 _"What was your favorite part of the trip?" her mom asked. The emotions had a hay day with that one._

 _"Spitting out the car window!"_

 _"Definitely not when dad was singing!"_

 _"Wearing a seat-belt!"_

That last one earned a chuckle from the film geek.

 _"Oh! What about the time with the dinosaur?" Riley's Joy said, recalling the correct memory. It was golden, of course._

 _"Oh yeah, that's the one..."_

 _"Definitely."_

 _"Mmm-hmm."_

 _Riley, remembering the sight of the car rolling back and getting impaled on the dinosaur's tail, said, "I liked that time with the dinosaur."_

 _As soon as the memory was there, however, it shimmered and turned a depressing hue of blue. All of Riley's emotions freaked out at this, wondering why it happened. On turning around, they saw Sadness there, hand up on the blue sphere and touching it. "_ _Sadness!" Riley's Joy said._

 _"She did something to the memory!" her Fear announced._

"Yeah, no kidding..." Disgust said to himself.

"What the heck is going on?" Fear asked, gently twisting an _'Eyes Widen'_ knob. The other emotions looked at her quizzically.

"What do you mean?" Anger said.

"Yeah," Disgust added, "Sadness has been repressed, now the girl's mind is trying to find an automatic balance."

"Well, _yeah_ , I know-" Fear said, "But- well- it's- you see... I-"

"Out with it!" Anger demanded.

"Yes, ma'am! Sorry. I mean- _he_ doesn't know that, though," Fear said, indicating the human whose mind they inhabited, "and if _he_ doesn't know it, then he kinda got a little uneasy, and since I felt what he felt, I just... pressed... the right button." Her speech wound to an awkwardly quiet close, as per usual. The others took in this thought with an uneasy feeling. It's not that they felt particularly _threatened_ by it or anything, but still... it felt _wrong_ (to them, of course, not the film geek. To _him_ , it was just another emotion).

"Odd," Disgust said, then continued watching the movie. The others followed suit. They all watched on as Riley's Sadness caused a _core_ memory to fall out, eliciting a gasp from a few of them. That's a big _no-no_ ; you do _not_ tinker with the core memories.

 _"Sadness! What are you doing?"_

 _"It looked like one was crooked, so I opened it and then it fell out!"_

The film geek's Sadness felt sympathy for the pudgy blue girl up on screen, and let the film geek frown slightly at her plight.

 _"I thought maybe if I could hold one..." Sadness said, reaching for the core memory in the slot. Just as she did, though, it began turning blue again._

 _"Woahhwoahwoah!" Joy interrupted, pushing Sadness back. The hue returned to normal. "_ _Sadness! You almost touched a core memory! And when you touch them, we can't change them back!"_

 _"I know, I'm sorry... Something's wrong with me! It's like I'm having a breakdown..."  
_

"Aww..." Sadness commented, adding a bit of a, "Heheh," at the end. He kept giggling only in little spurts as Joy attempted to cheer Sadness up. Culminating, of course, at...

 _"Oh, remember the funny movie where the dog dies?"_

The film geek's entire control room (sans Disgust) burst into uproarious laughter at that line. Disgust offered a wide grin (essentially his equivalent of cracking up with tears in his eyes). "That is _funny_ ," he said.

The rest of the scene went on pretty much uneventfully (though the control room did bust a gut again at Riley's Sadness's reaction to the rain - for some reason, that just resonated well with them). In the end, Riley's Joy decided to "get rid of the problem" by shoving Sadness off into a corner to read mind manuals. Disgust abruptly got up at that, slurped his soda, and declared that he needed to go get a refill. As he left, he obstinately pushed an _'Eyeroll'_ button for how Riley's Joy was behaving.

* * *

 _'I'm getting pretty fed up with her,'_ Disgust thought to himself as he walked down to the concession stand in one of the lower floors. Each time Riley's Joy popped up on screen, he felt his fists clenching harder and his jaw tightening. _'What's her deal, anyway?'_ he thought, _'It's like looking at the sun - too bright, too potent, too overwhelming... and good grief, she's a control freak!'_ He kept walking along, barely registering Anger's footsteps behind him. "Hey, Anger," he said.

"Hey there," she replied.

"Aren't you watching the movie? Aren't you worried you'll miss out?"

"Eh," Anger shrugged, "I just need more popcorn. It's not like I'm really needed right now, anyways. The only thing I've been upset about really was Riley's Joy not seeing the problem staring her _right in the face._ "

"Oh, huh."

"Why? You think there's something else to be mad about?"

"Oh? Nah, not really," Disgust shrugged, "I guess I just figured you'd find more than that, but whatever - that's your department, not mine."

"I guess so."

Anger got her popcorn and returned up to the control room in silence, leaving Disgust alone with his thoughts. _'Am I really being all that nitpick-y? And what's with Joy? He's been acting... well, he's been overreacting, I think... Or is he? Has he always been like this?'_

 _Confused_ , but not really _concerned_ per se, Disgust chucked the thought away. Then he grabbed some more Diet Dr. Pepper and mints.

* * *

 _"I'll tell you what it is: this move has been a bust!" Riley's Anger declared._

Sadness said, "Bingo" to that just as Disgust came walking back in.

"What did I miss?" he asked.

"Eh, nothing much," said Fear, "A few small jokes, then Anger pointed out that the move is really a bad thing."

"Ah," Disgust said, and sat down. He looked up at the screen and winced as Riley's Joy began trying her "happy thoughts" routine again.

 _"Look - I get it! You guys have concerns, but we've been through worse! Tell you what, let's make a list of all the things Riley should be happy about!"_

 _"Fine, let's see," Her Anger said sarcastically, "this house stinks, our room stinks..."_

 _"Pizza is weird here..." Disgust chimed in._

 _"Our friends are back home..." Sadness added from the back (the film geek laughed again)._

 _"And all of our stuff is in the missing van!" Fear ended._

"Dang right," Disgust said aloud.

 _"Oh, come on! It could be worse!" Joy said. She wasn't giving up without a fight._

 _"Yeah, Joy. We could be lying on the dirty floor in a bag."_

At which point the camera immediately cut to Riley in that exact situation. The audience laughed. The movie continued.

 _"Okay, i admit it: we've had a rough start," Joy tried, "but think of all the good things that-"_

 _Anger wasn't having any of it. "No, Joy," he said, "There's absolutely no reason for Riley to be happy right now. Let_ us _handle this."_

 _"I say we skip school tomorrow and lock ourselves in the bedroom," Fear suggested._

"Sounds fun to me," the real Joy commented.

 _"We have no clean clothes, I mean, no one should see us." Disgust said._

"Ew, valid point," said the geek's Disgust.

 _"We could cry until we can't breathe," Sadness suggested._

Joy laughed some more.

 _"We should lock the doors and scream that curse word we know!" Anger suggested as a devious smile sprung up on his face, "It's a good one!"_

Fear let out a nervous chuckle at the look on Anger's face, whereas Joy fully laughed at that. "Oh my gosh!" he said, "These writers, they're- whoever wrote this is good!" Up on screen, as Riley's Joy was trying desperately to keep the situation happy, but - lo and behold - her mom walked right in, looking not too thrilled at the moving situation.

 _"The 'Mom Bad News' train is pulling in!" her Anger said._

"Too wordy..." Disgust said to himself in a sing-song voice. He didn't notice Joy roll his eyes at him.

 _"Still no moving van. Now they're saying it won't be here until Tuesday. Can you believe it?"  
_

 _"Toot Toot!" Anger spouted off, imitating a train._

The real Anger laughed at Riley's Anger.

 _"Where's Dad?" Riley asked, concerned._

 _"He's still on the phone," her mom sighed, "This job is really taking a lot out of him."_

 _"Toot toot toot! I rest my case!" Declared Anger. Joy hesitated, then stepped away from the console, letting the small red cube take over. "_ _Now, for a few well-placed withering scowls..."_

"Oh, now that's not _really_ fair," the real Anger said, "It's not like it's the parents' fault the job is sucking up all this time!"

"Well," Sadness pointed out, "She _is_ just a little kid. You should remember that we used to get upset over the dumbest things, like-"

"Okay okay okay," Disgust interrupted, "Let's not discuss it right now." One thing he hated worse than bad writing was embarrassing memories from the past.

 _"I guess what I really want to say is thank you," the mom continued._

"Whoa..." Anger said, "What the heck?"

"Maybe," Sadness offered, "she's thankful that Riley finally showed she's not faking happiness all the time, because she just glared, so her mom knows that... uh... I dunno."

 _"Through all this you've stayed our happy girl. Dad really needs that. He needs us to be happy for him right now. You can do that, right?"_

"Oh!" Joy said, "Well, that makes sense, after all. I know when _our_ dad had a lot of trouble at work we always made sure to stay happy and cheerful for him when he got home. The last thing he needed was a bunch of negativity."

"I dunno..." Sadness said, squinting at the screen, "Something doesn't feel quite right here..."

 _"Yeah, no problem," Riley chirped._

 _"What did we do to deserve you? Goodnight, sweetie."_

 _"Goodnight."_

 _Inside Riley's head, the emotions were quite relieved. "Well, you can't argue with Mom," Anger said "Happy it is!"_

 _"Team Happy," said Fear, "sounds great!"_

 _Disgust added, "Totally behind you, Joy."_

"Hey... guys," Sadness said, "Look at the orbs! There's hardly any sad ones! Like, at all!"

"You're just now noticing?" Disgust said, "It's not surprising, considering Riley has that glow stick over there acting like a control freak."

"Oh, you're overreacting," Joy said, "She... well, uh..." his shoulder slumped and he sighed, "Okay, maybe you're right."

"Darn right, I'm right."

 _"Looks like we're going into REM. I've got dream duty, so I'll take care of sending these to long term._ _Great day today, guys! Sleep well, Team Happy!"_

Chomping on a mint, Disgust winced. _''Team Happy'? Oh, gag me, that's dorky,'_

 _'Alright, what's on tonight, Dream Production?' Joy asked aloud. Up on Riley's control screen, a dream unfolded. Her family car came flying in from the clouds above, parking itself right in front of the new home._

 _"Well, this is it," her dad said, "our new place."_

 _Immediately, the camera whipped over to a haunted looking house, replete with green skies and ghosts. Lightning flashed all around._

Another giggle from Joy. _'Another giggle, another giggle,_ another giggle,' Disgust thought, _'When will that goofball come up with any_ other _response? Good grief, it's like he's a walking cliché.'_ Disgust ignored the fact that he, too, was smiling at Riley's ridiculous dream. An undead mouse rose up to face the camera.

 _"Come live with me Riley!" it said in a nauseatingly high voice, before dying._

 _A bear walked on next, carrying a delivery box. "Did someone order a broccoli pizza?" The box flung open, revealing that revolting pizza from earlier._

 _"Eat me!" two of the slices said, having suddenly sprouted arms and legs and eyes. They danced around the pizza box creepily. "I'm organic!"_

Disgust smirked again, happy that the filmmakers made the dream nonsensical, as most dreams _actually_ are. Too often in films, the "dream" sequence feels more like a bad attempt at another ordinary scene. At least _this_ dream sequence felt like a real dream, not some sort of cheap imitation.

Fear's smile was nowhere to be seen. She was too busy thinking of how creepily accurate it was. Not the contents of the dream, of course (they weren't even remotely scary), but the way that dreams work. A tremble ran down her purple spine. _'Disney should_ not _know this!'_ Her eyes flickered around. If any of the other emotions were thinking about this, they didn't show it. Hesitantly, she looked back on screen and soon found another reason to be afraid. There, before her eyes, she witnessed the single most audacious thing so far in this film.

 _"I know I'm not supposed to do this," Riley's Joy was saying, "but..." and with that, she killed the power and shut the dream down._

The real emotions' mouths were all wide open in shock.

"What does that _brat_ think she's _doing?!"_ Anger demanded, slamming a button. Her hair flared up in rage.

"That's- this- ooh! Oh my- That- that can't be good! That can't be!" Fear stammered out. She nearly fainted in her seat again.

"Riley's going to get damaged from all this emotional abuse, I just know it," Sadness said. He placed his head in his hands, thoroughly disappointed in what he was seeing.

"Joy," Disgust said, "You're despicable." Then, eyes widening, quickly turned to the _real_ Joy and said, "I was referring to Riley's Joy! Just- I didn't mean _you."_

He had no need to explain, though: the real Joy was locked in a comatose stare at the screen. "Why?" he managed to say, "Why would she even _dare?"_

The emotions couldn't think of anything else. No words came, only shocked quiet. They all simply watched on as Joy pulled up a happy memory of Riley skating. Slowly, the music - that soft piano melody the movie's theme consisted of - came back on, and Joy was figure skating alongside her girl, matching motions perfectly.

Inwardly, the film geek's Joy thought it was pretty touching... not that that justified what the glowing golden emotion had just done, however. Sadness, too, felt touched by the picture. But he, too, didn't say a word; the sheer _nerve_ of Joy doing what she did still was stuck in his head. Anger was calmed down, but still glowering at the screen. Fear shuddered. Disgust shook his head in utter disapproval.

And so it was that a very rare memory, one with splotches of all five colors, came rolling in and nestled itself against the others in the control room. Too absorbed by the film, the emotions didn't pay it any attention.

 _Eventually, the memory wound down as Riley stopped skating. Joy walked up to the screen and touched it gently with her hand._ _"Don't you worry. I'm going to make sure that tomorrow is another great day..."_

Fear winced at that.

Sadness sighed.

Anger scoffed.

Joy did nothing.

And Disgust... well, he said exactly what was on his mind. "A great day... Yeah, I'm sure," he said, "Great by _whose_ standards?"

For once, Joy (the _real_ Joy) couldn't help but inwardly agree. Riley's emotional leader was getting out of hand.


	6. Manly Tears

_In-film, the next day started with a hyperactive Riley scarfing down some cereal. Inside her head, an equally hyper Joy came leaping around Headquarters, slamming away on an accordion to the tune of 'Reveille.' Disgruntled (to say the least), Fear, Anger, and Disgust popped up and glared at her through the window with half-closed eyes. "Hello!" she chirped, "Did I wake you?"_

The real Joy thought it was funny enough to give a chuckle, but - at the same time - his Anger allowed a hint of red to sprinkle the new memory that came rolling in. The film geek tittered* at that, feeling sympathy for the rudely awakened emotions... but not enough to stop him from enjoying their pain.

 _"Do you have to play that?" Riley's Anger spouted off._

 _"Well, I have to practice," Joy replied, "and I don't think of it as 'playing' so much as 'hugging!'"_

With which words, she promptly squeezed the accordion. It let out a dissonant wail of notes in protest, and the film geek's Disgust pushed the _'Wrinkle Nose'_ lever to _'10% Intensity.'_ For a flickering second, he and the moviegoer had the same expression on; ears almost plugged and nose slightly wrinkled.

 _"Okay, first day of school - very, very exciting!" Riley's Joy continued, leaping down to the main floor of her Headquarters as her coworkers trudged down the stairs. "I was up late last night figuring out a new plan. Here it is: Fear!"_

 _"Whoa!" the purple twig jerked back in startlement, nearly dropping his notepad._

The _real_ Joy snorted, covering his mouth and trying not to distract the others with a loud laugh.

 _Not registering the scare, Riley's Joy continued, "I need a list of all possible negative outcomes on the first day at a new school."_

 _"Way ahead of you, there. Does anyone know how to spell 'meteor?'"_

The real Fear chuckled at that. "Oh, good grief!"

 _"Disgust - make sure Riley stands out today, but also blends in."_

 _"When I'm through, Riley will look so good the other kids will look at their own outfits and barf."_

 _Suddenly, Joy jumped into a new position and began pretending to talk to herself. "Joy!"_

 _"Yes, Joy?"_

 _"You'll be in charge of the console, keeping Riley happy all day long (and, may I add, I love your dress - it's adorable)?"_

 _"Oh, this old thing? Thank you so much! I love the way it twirls-"_

The film geek almost choked on some popcorn as he giggled.

His Fear almost choked on some popcorn as a loud train whistle blasted her ears.

 _"Train of Thought! Right on schedule," Joy continued. She glanced over at Riley's Anger, who was reading another pretty comedic newspaper headline._ _"Anger? Unload the daydreams. I ordered extra in case things get slow in class."_

 _"Might come in handy, if this new school is full of boring, useless classes, which it probably will be!"_

The real Anger raised her shoulders and thought, ' _Eh, you're probably not wrong, there._ _'_

"Aww..." the real Sadness said, looking over at his counterpart on screen. The film geek felt another twinge of sympathy for her. Just then, however-

 _"Oh, Sadness! I have a super important job just for you."_

"Wha...?" Joy said.

 _"Really?" Riley's Sadness visibly brightened up at that._

"Aww," Joy responded, "Yay! Look at that face!"

 _"Mmhmm, follow me." Eager to see what her new job would be, Sadness followed Joy along like a little puppy._

"Hey man," Disgust mentioned to Joy, "Let's not count our chickens-" But before he could finish, the movie played on and made the visual statement for him. Riley's Joy and drawn a complete circle around Sadness, and the film geek knew _exactly_ where this was going.

"Hey, you know what this reminds me of?" his Joy said. Before anyone could ask him what he was doing, he summoned up a memory from a few years ago:

He'd been reading the script for _'The Trial,' (_ an unfinished _'Invader ZIM'_ episode). In it, he could visualize the Tallest as they told Zim that this was his empire's "finest hour," and that he was in charge of "watching everything from this circle!" On the brink of taking over the universe, the last thing they needed was a spanner in the works; they'd placed the trigger happy little maniac in a little circle drawn right around where he stood. The film geek actually laughed out loud as he recalled the destruction that that insect caused anyways, unable to resist the urge to go and "aid" his empire... by destroying and killing everything in sight.

"Joy!" Anger shouted, "The movie! We're missing the movie!" Disgust would have mentioned something, but he was snickering uncontrollably.

The bubbly yellow emotion was in the middle of laughing. Wiping a tear from his eye, he said, "Sorry! Sorry," and sent it back to where it came from.

 _"Alright, everyone!" Riley's Joy was saying, "Fresh start! We are gonna have a good day, which will turn into a good week, which will turn into a good year, which turns into a good life!"_

Disgust scoffed. "Yeah, I'm sure..." he muttered. His side comment didn't go unheard by Joy.

 _Meanwhile, Riley's Mom was seeing her off as she got her backpack on and prepared to walk out the door. "So, big day... New school, new friends, huh?"_

 _"I know!" Riley said with a smile, "I'm kinda nervous, but I'm mostly excited. How do I look?"_

 _"You look good!" Her mom assured her, "You sure you're gonna be okay? You want us to walk with you?"_

 _Her Disgust wasn't having any of it. "Mom and Dad, with us, in public? No, thank you." She reached for the console-_

 _"Yep, I'm on it!" Joy interrupted, pressing the button for Disgust._

"Oh, great," Anger said, "First Sadness, now Disgust! _When_ will she stop doing other people's jobs?"

Fear was visibly shaken. "I'm not worried about that," she said, "So much as the fact that an _eleven-year-old girl will be walking on her own all the way to school in San Francisco!"_

"Oooh, wow! You're right... yikes. What are her parents _thinking?_ " A mixed-marble of purple and red rolled out.

"Well," Joy countered, "Maybe they live right near the school."

"Eh, maybe."

 _One jump cut later, and Riley was standing in front of what might have been the most boring looking school the film geek had seen in his entire life._

"Oh for crying out _loud_ , that looks _awful!"_ Disgust exclaimed, grabbing his hat in astonishment. _'How can you possibly make a place look any_ less _appealing? Good_ night _, that's bland!'_

 _'Can't you ever say anything positive?'_ Joy thought to himself.

 _"Are you sure we wanna do this?" Riley's fear said._

 _"In we go!" Joy interjected. Riley brightened up and marched right in._

 _"Okay! Going in! Yes!"_

* * *

Seconds later, after a brief joke about wanting the cool kids to like them (which the real Joy enthusiastically giggled at), Riley's Fear came walking in, carrying an obscenely large stack of papers.

 _"Almost finished with the potential disasters," he said, setting the pile down with a heavy_ thud, _"Worst scenario is either quicksands, spontaneous combustion, or getting called on by the teacher. So, as long as none of those happens-"_

 _"Okay, everybody!" the teacher brightly announced, "We have a new student in class today."_

 _Fear spilled the papers in... well, fear. "Are you kidding me? Out of the_ gate _?! This is not happening!"_

 _"Riley," her teacher continued, "would you like to tell us something about yourself?"_

 _"Noooo!" Fear exclaimed, "Pretend we can't speak English!"_

Another round of laughter.

 _"Don't worry - I've got this," Joy said, gently pushing a lever._

 _In response, Riley stood up nervously and spoke. "Okay, um... Hi. My name is Riley Anderson. I used to live in Minnesota, and now... I live here."_

 _Trying to coax her out of her shyness, the teacher replied, "...and how's Minnesota? Can you tell us something about it?" Then, with a chuckle, added, "You certainly get more snow than we do."_

 _"Hahahahaheh, she's so funny!" Joy obnoxiously said._

"Ugh," grunted Disgust with a roll of his eyes.

 _But Riley kept on happily talking about her home. "Heh, yeah, sometimes it gets so cold the lake freezes over, and that's when we play hockey!" Joy quickly summoned a memory for Riley to think about, aiding her in telling her class about her favorite sport. "I'm on a great team; we're called the_ 'Prairie Dogs.' _We go out on the lake almost every weekend."_

Both Joys smiled warmly...

 _"Or... at least, we did... before I moved..."_

And then both of their smiles faded. On-screen, _Riley's_ Joy turned to see Sadness's outstretched hand touching a memory. It had changed to a shimmering icy hue. The small emotion had the same look on her face as a toddler with his hand caught in the cookie jar. The real Joy looked over and bit his lip as he saw Sadness's eyes watering a little. "You alright?" he asked.

There was no response.

 _"Sadness!" Joy exclaimed,_ _"You touched a memory? We talked about this!"_

 _"Oh, yeah, I know..." she replied, then tucked her blushing cheeks into her turtlenecked sweater. Through the fabric came a muffled, "I'm sorry."_

"Aww! That's so adorable," Joy said, genuinely meaning it, but - at the same time - trying to keep his coworker from bursting out into tears. Unfortunately for Joy, the sight only made Sadness's eyes grow bigger and wetter.

 _"What is going on?"_

 _"Get it out of there, Joy!"_

Fear shuddered and covered her mouth as she saw Riley's controls become unresponsive.

 _Riley's Disgust noticed something. "Cool kids whispering at 3 o' clock!"_

 _"Did you see that look?" her Fear shouted, "They're judging us!" Quickly, all of her emotions struggled to pull the memory down... giving her Sadness the opportunity to run over to the control panel. Riley began breaking down and crying in front of all her other classmates, her voice cracking and getting softer with each passing second, to the point where it was impossible to tell what she was saying._

"It's okay, Sadness! It's just a movie- it's just a movie!" Joy was saying to Sadness as a wheezing whine began building at the back of his throat, getting higher and higher-pitched.

Noticing the situation, the other emotions tried hard to talk Sadness out of pressing the _'Cry'_ button. "Uh- Uh... H-Hey!" Disgust said, "At- At least it's good writing! It's not a cliché! See! Look! The other kids aren't arbitrarily being bullies or mocking her or anything! See?"

Too late, though; the _real_ Sadness exploded into a shuddering fountain of tears. "Oh, it's so sa-ha-ha-haaad!" he said with a gasp, "She's so upset and she misses home and she's _crying! Oh no!"_

Disgust groaned and buried his face into his hat, _'Okay,'_ he thought, _'For the last time, Disgust, you_ stink _at making people feel better. Hopefully the others can keep him from making us cry... or even tear up!'_ Anger was no help, though, as she tore out Riley's Joy again. Sadness's pudgy elbow nudged a _'Tear Ducts'_ button, and the film geek felt that uncomfortable warmth of his eyes watering up. Unfortunately, Joy failed to see anything remotely happy about the movie, and Fear's mention that they'd be embarrassed if they cried in the theater only seemed to make matters worse. Several blue orbs came rolling in.

 _On-screen, Riley's Fear made a similar observation. "We're crying at school!" The other emotions looked over to see Sadness, pressing all sorts of buttons._

 _"Sadness!" Joy said, "What are you doing?!" She ran over and yanked the other emotion off the controls._

 _As Sadness uttered her signature "I'm sorry" catchphrase, a blinding blue light emerged from Riley's viewscreen._

 _"It's a core memory..." Fear said._

"Whoa..." said the real Disgust.

 _"But it's... blue!" his feminine doppelganger added. Everyone was too stunned to react as it rolled up and began descending into the floor._

 _It was_ that _sight that made Riley's Joy finally snap out of it._ "Ah! _No! Wait! Stop it! No!" She scrambled over to try and grab the memory._

"No!" The real Fear panicked, "No-no-no-no! No! Don't do that!"

"Stop it!" her red coworker said, "Stop that right now! _There are rules!_ " Her hair began heating up as Riley's Joy reached in and pulled the blue memory out of its proper place.

 _"Joy, no! That's a core memory!" Sadness protested, fighting over it with Joy._

 _"Wait! Stop it, let go!"_

 _"Please-"_

 _"Aaah! The core memories!"_

 _Their struggle had knocked over all the other glowing orbs, causing the Islands of Personality to shut down completely. Riley - in turn - froze up and stopped crying. The sight made the film geek's Fear flinch. Riley's Joy began running around, picking the memories up as fast as she possibly could. She looked up just in time to see Sadness moving in, putting the blue core in its place._

 _"No! No, no no!" She dove after Sadness, knocking her over and spilling the memories once again._

The film geek's emotions (except a still-sobbing Sadness) could only watch in horror as Riley's Joy and Sadness fought over the newly-formed sphere, stumbled in the way of the recall tube, and were sucked out of HQ, along with _all of Riley's core memories._

The only sounds in the film geek's head were his blue emotion's sniffles as he blew his nose and dabbed his eyes.

 _"That's okay, Riley," her teacher said calmly "I know how hard it is to move so far away, but we're all here for you. Alright, everyone!" She quickly changed the subject, hoping to draw attention away from Riley, "Get out your history books and turn to chapter seven."_

 _"Can I say that curse word now?"_

The real Joy and Anger couldn't help but chuckle at that. Disgust breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the state of things. The fresh blue memories he wasn't concerned about; he just didn't want them to publicly _cry_. _'The scene's over,'_ he thought, _'And we held back those tears... even if we watered up a little.'_

After only a second more, Sadness removed and polished his glasses. Putting them back on, he said, "Okay, sorry about that guys... so... what did I miss?"

* * *

* Footnotes, man. Footnotes. I'll only use them when necessary. _Anyways_ , titter is actually a word that means a sort of suppressed laugh or giggle. But the key thing here is that it's _not_ the word "giggle," "laugh," or "chuckle." Protip for fellow writers: You've _got_ to stay creative with your wording; try to avoid repetition as much as possible (unless it's for thematic purposes, of course).


	7. High Tension

_Not wasting any time, the scene cut to Joy and Sadness being sucked through the pipes that led all throughout Riley's mind. Barely clutching on to the golden core memories, Joy rounded a corner in time to see the newly-formed sad one get shot down a separate tube. Continuing to tumble, she managed to catch glimpses of the Personality Islands, stuck in colorless ruin._

"Hey!" the film geek's Joy said, "Doesn't this make you think of Portal 2, guys?" He reached to recall the memory but stopped after all the others protested, not wanting to miss anything up on screen. "Fine, but it _does_ remind me of Portal 2."

"Hey, yeah..." Disgust said, "Flying through the tubes, there are orbs that got taken from the main room (like the personality cores), and a blue core just got sucked down a separate pipe... and a control freak who is no longer in charge and is now falling from the main room above after disaster has struck."

 _'Whoa, the resemblance is uncanny...'_ Joy thought, completely missing that last jab his green coworker had thrown at Riley's Joy.

"I wonder," Fear said, "I wonder if each of those cores is going to wind up lost on an Island of Personality, and they have to do a sort of quest to find them, like in a video game-"

 _Just then, her question was answered with a "no" as Joy and Sadness came tumbling out of the pipe and landing in a bin full of memory cores._

"Ouch!" the real Sadness exclaimed, rubbing his head, "I felt that!"

"Oh- Oh no!" Fear was momentarily panicked, "how are- _how are they gonna find the orbs?_ They're all mixed in the pile! They... oh. Duh. They're brighter. False alarm."

 _"Oh no!" Joy exclaimed as she reached for the brightly glowing orbs, adding "okay," after she'd found them all. She got out of the bin, looked around, and her relief quickly faded. "Where are we?"_

 _"We're in Long-Term Memory," Sadness explained, sliding out as well._

 _"Long-Term Memory?"_

"Guys, this is wrong," Fear said.

"Actually," Anger corrected, "It looks about right. As far as I've seen, anyway. We don't exactly have the free time to head down to Long-Term and take a vacation, now, do we?"

"But that's just it!" Fear shouted, limp limbs gesturing at the screen, "Disney knows some stuff they should _not_ know! I'm genuinely freaked out by this, okay?" No response from any of the others. "What? Am I the only one here who sees that-"

"No," Disgust pointed out with a shrug, "But what can we do about it? We're pretty much _helpless_ \- shoot! I mean- Uh... Bad choice of words!" Fear had already curled up in a fetal position, though, rocking back and forth in her chair, lower lip bit and bulging eyes staring through the screen ahead. Sadness snapped his fingers in front of her face a few times, but she didn't respond.

"Uh... but the bright side," Joy suggested, "Is that at least we probably won't need Fear's assistance for the rest of _this_ movie, right? Come on, how scary could it be?"

"Thanks, Joy," Disgust said flatly.

"You're welcome."

"I was being sarcastic."

"Oh."

Up on-screen, the film continued on.

 _"Oh, this is bad..." Sadness panicked, stating the obvious. "_ _Riley has no core memories, no Personality Islands, and no-" she froze, gasping._

 _"What?" Joy said with worry, "What is it?"_

 _"You! You're not in Headquarters! Without you there, Riley can't be happy!"_

 _'Well, that_ is _a problem,'_ Anger thought to herself, _'But maybe some time-out is just what Joy needs. I swear, if she doesn't learn a lesson from this debacle...'_ she clenched her knuckles slightly. Not like it would affect anything.

 _"We've gotta get you back up there," Riley's Sadness declared._

 _"I'm coming, Riley..." said Joy as the two raced towards the nearest island, in hopes of reaching HQ before anything bad could happen._

 _Meanwhile, her family was at dinner, eating some Chinese takeout._

"Oh! I remember this from the trailer!" the real Joy said.

"Don't you dare pull up another memory!" Anger spouted off.

"Okay."

 _'Ew,'_ the _real_ Disgust thought, _'Chinese food.'_ Unless it was sweet-and-sour chicken, the film geek wasn't exactly a fan of that cuisine.

 _"So as it turns out, the green bins are not for recycle and are actually for compost. Who knew?"_

Disgust scoffed to himself, muttering something about hippies.

 _Inside Riley's head, the three remaining emotions were coping about as well as could be expected from them._

 _"Riley is acting so weird," Disgust said, "Why is she acting so weird?"_

 _"What do you expect?" Anger shot back, "All the islands are down!"_

 _"Joy would know what to do," Disgust thought._

 _Fear brightened up at that. "That's it!" he said, "Until she gets back, we just do what Joy would do!"_

 _"Good idea!" Disgust spat, "Anger, Fear, Disgust... how are we supposed to be happy?"_

 _Before there could be a response, the emotions were summoned to the control panel by the voice of Riley's mom. "Hey, Riley! I found out that they have a Junior Hockey League, right here, in San Francisco! And get this: tryouts are tomorrow!"_

 _"Okay," Disgust said, "do something."_

 _Fear stuttered around, trying to think of what to do. "Okay, I just- Uh- The- This- Here! You pretend to be Joy." In one motion, he and Disgust switched spots, and the green feeling was standing right at the console's front._

"Oh boy," the real Disgust said, "this is _not_ going to go over well."

"No lie," Joy added.

 _"Isn't that great?" Riley's Mom continued, "You can finally start playing Hockey again!"_

 _With a disgusted flick of the switch, Riley's green emotion made her move. "Oh, yeah," Riley said venomously, "that sounds fantastic."_

 _"What was that?" Fear panicked, "That wasn't anything like Joy!"_

The film geek laughed.

 _"Uh... because I'm not Joy?"_

 _"Yeah, no kidding."_

 _Riley's mom gave a puzzled look, and the camera zoomed in straight to her HQ. The film geek's emotions visibly relaxed at the sight of some semblance of order. His Fear even came out of her catatonic state and stopped rocking in the chair._

 _"Did you guys pick up on that?" the mother's Sadness (who was the leader) asked. The response was quick._

 _"Uhuh."_

 _"Yep."_

 _"Sure did - something's wrong."_

 _"Should we ask her?" her Anger suggested._

The film geek chuckled again. The Mrs. Anderson's Anger had a voice that sounded funny, but - at the same time - was appropriate for her character.

 _"Let's probe," Sadness replied, "but keep it subtle, so she doesn't notice." Joy carried out the command._

 _"So... Riley," her Mom asked, "how was school today?"_

Disgust nodded his head, noting the consistency between Joy pressing the lever and the mom's happy demeanor when asking the question. Not that it made much of a difference to the plot, but as the old saying goes: _"The Devil is in the details,"_ and little details like that help make a film that much better... in his opinion, at least.

 _Riley's emotions weren't fooled. "She's probing us!"_

 _"I'm done!" Disgust threw her hands up and stepped away from the console. "You pretend to be Joy!"_

 _Fear timidly stepped up to the plate. "Uh... okay, uh... Hmm." With all the confidence of a kindergartner at a diving board, he pressed a button._

 _Riley responded in kind. "It was fine, I guess... I dunno."_

 _"Good job," Disgust chided, "that was just like Joy."_

Sadness couldn't help but laugh at Riley's Fear as his trembling eyes watered up. And, yet again, Disgust smirked, thinking, ' _Wow. Poor guy couldn't have failed harder if he'd tried.'_

 _Mrs. Anderson's Anger, clearly the detective of the group, noted that "Something is definitely going on!"_

 _"She's never acted like this before," her Joy said, voice full of concern, "What should we do?"_

 _"Alright, we're gonna find out what's happening," Sadness said, "But we're gonna need some support. Signal the Husband."_

 _"Ahem," Riley's mom coughed, trying to catch her spouse's attention. His mind was clearly somewhere else. She tried again._ _"Ahem!"_

 _The camera zoomed right into the dad's head, where his emotions were busy enjoying the memory of a football game, hooting and hollering as a touchdown was scored._

"Ugh," the real Disgust said, "Stereotypical. If this guy turns out to be another one of Hollywood's 'bumbling dads,' I might just throw up."

"Okay," Joy said suddenly, "would it _kill_ you to enjoy a movie for once? I - for one - am having a great time, and I'm sure the others would agree!"

Nobody mentioned anything. Disgust scowled, but let Joy's barb bounce off. Now was not the time for a drawn out debate.

 _Mr. Anderson's Anger suddenly noticed something up on screen. "Uh-oh. She's looking at us." Quickly, he shut the memory down and they all focused on Mrs. Anderson's concerned face._ _"What'd she say?" he asked._

 _"Wha?" Fear jumped, then - saluting - said, "Oh! Uh, sorry, sir. No one was listening."_

 _Anger tried coming up with an idea, a guess,_ anything _to figure out what Riley's mom was concerned about. "Is it garbage night? Uh... we left the toilet seat up! What? What is it, woman? What?!"_

The film geek's Joy accidentally spat soda everywhere as he laughed. "Nasty!" Disgust exclaimed, shrinking away from the spray. Then, looking down at the mess, he groaned and stood up, heading out to get some towels. "I'll be back," he said.

 _Meanwhile, in Riley's Mom's head, the emotions weren't exactly happy with her husband's clueless look. "He's making that face again."_

 _"I could strangle him right now!" her Anger spouted off._

Joy managed to hold in his drink this time.

 _"Signal him again," her Sadness calmly instructed._

Disgust came walking back in, napkins in hand. He began wiping up Joy's spilled soda mess, declining any offer for help.

 _Mrs. Anderson pointed her eyes briefly at Riley, and her husband brightened up, suddenly realizing what she was getting at. "Oh! So... Riley," he said with a smile, "how was school?"_

 _Riley's Mom's emotions were running out of patience, all groaning and muttering at how Mr. Anderson didn't seem to be getting it. "For this, we gave up that Brazillian helicopter pilot?"_

Disgust accidentally nudged a button this time, not hard enough for him nor any of the others to notice, and the film geek thought to himself, ' _Hey... that line was said with a different inflection in the trailer... huh.'_

 _Riley's Anger stepped up to the plate. "Move," he said, shoving Fear aside, "I'll be Joy!"_

"Uh-oh," the real Fear said, cringing."

 _"School was great, alright?" Riley hissed through gritted teeth._

 _More concern only came from her Mother. "Riley, is everything okay?"_

"Wow," the real Anger reacted, "Her mom is _really_ in control here. I'd have given Riley some stern words for her tone by now!"

 _But Riley rolled here eyes in disgust, and her father picked right up on it. "Sir, she just rolled her eyes at us," his Fear reported._

 _"What is her deal?" Anger squinted, scratching his chin in confusion. Settling on an idea, he leaned back, "Alright, make a show of force. I don't wanna have to put the foot down."_

 _"No..." Fear quivered, "not the_ foot! _"_

 _'Oh,'_ the film geek thought as a smile creased his face, _'This joke. Heh, I remember it from the trailer...'_

 _"Riley," her father warned, "I do_ not _like this new attitude."_

 _"Oh, I'll show you 'attitude,' old man," Riley's Anger gritted. Fear tried to reel him in._

 _"No no no! Stay happy-" pow! Anger punched him away, then seized control._

 _"What is your problem?" Riley shouted, "Just leave me alone!"_

"Oooh..." the real Anger said.

"She-she's been through a lot..." Sadness suggested.

"I know," Anger replied, "But _ohhh boy,_ that tone is _really_ gonna... rghh!" she simply gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.

 _"Sir, reporting high levels of sass!" Mr. Anderson's Fear announced._

 _"Take it to defcon 2!" Anger said. Red sirens began blaring in the back._

 _"You heard that, gentlemen: defcon 2!" All the emotions began preparing for it..._

"Oh, man..." Fear said.

"This isn't gonna be good," Sadness added.

 _'We've already watched the trailer,'_ Disgust thought to himself.

 _"Listen, young lady, I don't know where this disrespectful came from..."_

 _"You want a piece of this, pops?" Anger spouted, loosening his tie (a gesture that made Joy snicker again) "Come and get it!"_

 _"Yeah," Riley said, grasping for a comeback, "well- well..."_

 _"Here it comes!" Her dad's Anger commanded, "Prepare the foot!"_

 _"Keys to safety position!" Fear said. All the emotions brought out emergency keys and readied them,_ _"Ready to launch on your command, sir!"_

"Haheheh," Sadness chuckled, his pudgy belly shaking with him, "It's just like a nuclear launch facility! Hah! Ha... heh."

 _"Just shut up!" Riley's Anger made her shout._

"Oh no she didn't!" the real Anger yelled.

 _"Fire!" the father's Anger said._

 _Then it all came to a sudden halt, very much as if a bomb had gone off. "That's it!" Mr. Anderson said, "Go to your room! Now!" Riley shoved the table back and marched straight up the stairs._

 _Inside, Riley's dad's emotions were celebrating what they felt was a success. "The foot is down!" Fear exclaimed, "The foot is down."_

 _"Good job, gentlemen," Anger said as he relaxed in his seat, "That could've been a disaster."_

 _The scene immediately cut to Riley's Mom's emotions, all staring flatly at the screen in utter disappointment._

The film geek's Joy burst into a fit of laughter, joined by Sadness, Fear, and Anger. Disgust even let a single, "Heh," escape himself as he finished wiping the console.

 _"Well, that was a disaster," Mrs. Anderson's Sadness said._

...and Disgusts's smile faded. He almost said something about how the joke was perfect before Sadness spoke, but didn't, not wanting to go through the annoyed looks of Joy yet again. With a jerk of his hand, he wiped off the last of the soda and chucked the dirty paper towels into the nearby trash bin.

 _"Come, fly with me, gatinha..."_

He was glad nobody could see him roll his eyes as he walked across the room. By the time he sat back down in his seat, the scene had changed: Riley's Joy and Sadness were on the edge of goofball island, facing the long, narrow support leading to headquarters.

 _"You're going out there?" Sadness timidly asked as Joy took a step closer to it._

 _"It's the quickest way back."_

"Oh, please _no!"_ Fear said, "Find some help! Look for others! _Anything_ but walking across what was definitely _not_ meant to be a bridge!"

 _"But its right over the memory dump!"_ _Riley's Sadness exclaimed,_ _"If you fall down there, you'll be forgotten forever!"_

Fear quickly tapped the _'Eyes Widen'_ button and began trembling.

 _"We've gotta do this for Riley," Joy explained (the real Disgust thought it sounded a tad bit insincere, and looked at the screen with narrowed, suspicious eyes), "Now, just follow my lead..." With that, she took a step out onto the edge, trying to cross the support's silky smooth surface._

Fear looked like she would begin hyperventilating again. Wincing, stuttering, twitching, she looked like she was on the brink of shouting, "Stop! No! That is literally the _worst idea you could have!_ " Her trembling hands were hovering close to all sorts of buttons on the console.

 _Then Joy slipped and hit the "bridge" hard, landing between her legs and barely clinging to the memories._

"Just find another way!" Anger shouted.

"Y-Y-Yeah!" Fear concurred, pointing at her red peer, "Like she said!"

Sadness was cringing in pain. "Aaah! That had to hurt!"

"Uh, I think," Joy said, "I think that was the sound of the _orbs_ hitting the support, not-"

But Sadness had already hit the _'cringe'_ button, and the film geek winced appropriately at the sight.

 _Back to Riley. she was curled up in her sleeping bag, looking miserable. Her father quietly entered. He sat down next to his daughter._ _"Hey Riley. So, things got a little tense down there at dinner. You wanna talk about it?"_

 _No response, but he wasn't about to give up._ _"Hey, where's my little monkey?"_

 _In Riley's head, her three remaining emotions looked visibly concerned. "Uh-oh." Anger said, "He's trying to start up 'Goofball.'" They scurried over to witness what would happen._

Every emotion watching tensed up, suddenly putting two and two together. "Uh..." Fear said.

 _A loud creak resonated, and then Joy froze in her tracks. In the background, Sadness - still not even daring to touch the support - looked up in concern._

Fear tensed up.

 _The support began crumbling away to dust._

"Ah- uh- Ah! _Aaah!_ " Fear yelled, slamming the _'Nose Flare'_ button and seizing the lever labeled _'Hand Grip._ ' Outside, the Film geek had stopped eating his popcorn. Now, heart racing, he looked up at the screen as Joy and Sadness scrambled to flee the collapse of Goofball Island and keep the memories safe. His jaw tightened, his eyes widened, his nose flared out in a burst of air, and his fingers locked onto his armrests in a somewhat firm grip as he tensed up. Then, as soon as it had started, it was over. The Island vanished into the pits below.

 _Riley's father realized his monkey routine was getting nowhere. "I get it: you need some alone time..." he said, standing up, "but we'll talk later."_

Back with the film geek's emotions, Anger slapped Fear, snapping her out of her locked up mode. She resumed breathing, heavily at first, then slowly wound down to normal speeds. "Oh my... Oh my gosh," she said.

A purple memory orb rolled in, nestling up against the second-newest green one. Joy looked confused, then shot a glance at Disgust.

"What?" Disgust said defensively, "Hey - before you make a judgement - it _wasn't_ a bad thing I pointed out. While you guys were busy panicking, I noticed that Riley's dad was being a nice, loving father _instead of_ the stereotypical idiot you see in most movies."

Silence.

"So I was disgusted at the _stereotype_ , but happy with how it was _averted._ "

Still no response.

Disgust slurped his soda.

 _On-screen, Riley's Sadness was being her usual self. "She lost Goofball Island! That means she could lose Friendship and Hockey and Honesty and Family..." she tensed up, looking more worried with each word. She looked up to Joy, both figuratively and literally, and said, "You can fix this, right?... Right Joy?"_

 _"I... I don't know," Joy admitted. "But we have to try. Okay, come on." She moved to take a step, but the light far above powered down; it was nighttime inside._

 _"Riley's gone to sleep..." Joy said._

 _"Ooh..." Sadness shrunk back again._

"Aww," the real Joy and Sadness said in unison.

 _Suddenly, Riley's Joy found the positive side of it, as she always seemed to do. "Which... is a good thing, when you think about it, because nothing else bad can happen while she's asleep!"_

"Points for trying," Disgust said, chucking another mint in, "But just admit how the situation is, sis - you'll be better off for it."

 _"We'll be back to headquarters before she wakes up. We'll just go across..." she looked at the jagged cliff that led to the next Island over._

 _"We'll never make it, oh no..." Sadness moaned, beginning to collapse._

 _Joy acted immediately, not wanting her companion to drag the situation down even lower than it was, "Oh, no no nononono don't obsess over the weight of life's problems remember the funny movie where the dog dies-"_

The film geek laughed hard at that, relieved to hear the other audience members laughing along with him (it's always awkward when you're the only one laughing at a joke).

 _"Oh, Sadness! We don't have time for this!" Looking up, Joy gazed into the maze of memories before her, "We'll just have to go around." With which words, she began marching, determined to find her way._

 _"No, Joy!" Sadness protested, "You'll get lost in there!"_

 _"Think positive!" Joy shouted back._

 _"Okay, I'm positive you will get lost in there!" the blue emotion yelled back, "That's Long-Term Memory: an endless warren of corridors and hallways. I read about it in the manuals."_

Joy _brightened up at that. "The manuals! You read the manuals!"_

 _"Yeah..."_

 _"...so, you know the way back to headquarters!"_

 _"I guess."_

 _Joy giggled and danced around._ _"You are my map," she said, "Let's go! Lead on, 'my map!' Show me where we're goin'!"_

 _Sadness tried standing up, looking a little more energized. "Okay! Only... I'm too sad to move..." she flopped back down before even getting off her back._

The film geek's emotions responded quickly to that, with Sadness saying, "Oh, poor thing..." and Joy busting his gut.

 _"I need to lie down. Just give me a few... hours?"_ _Riley's Joy wasn't going to let that happen. She walked over, grabbed Sadness by her leg, and began pulling. "Oh!"_

 _"Which way, left?" Joy asked._

 _"Right." Sadness replied, and Joy turned right._ _"No, no I mean go left. You said 'left,' so I said 'right' as in 'correct.'"_

The real Joy made sure to swallow his soda this time before chuckling all over again. "Oh, man!" he said, "Where do they come up with this stuff? It's great!"

 _"This actually feels kinda nice..."_

"Hahahahahah!" he giggled.

 _Joy marched on, determined to stay positive. "Okay, here we go! Back to headquarters before morning! We can do this - this'll be easy! This is working!"_

"Ugh-" Disgust said, rolling his eyes again.

"What is it now?" Joy moaned.

"Those lines!" the green emotion gestured at the screen, "They're _so_ forced!"

Joy glanced back and forth between the screen and Disgust's expression before saying, "I think that's what the writers were going for..."

"I know," Disgust said, patience running thin, "and they succeeded in annoying me. If that was their goal, then they're doing it right!"

"No need to be so sarcastic."

"Look, Joy, I _wasn't_ , okay? I'm being _completely_ honest with you! Now, are we gonna need to step out and talk about this?"

"Oh, lighten up, man."

Disgust almost spoke, hesitated, then closed his mouth. _'Don't,'_ he thought to himself, _'Don't respond. Don't say a word. Don't justify what you've done.'_

"I'll-" he said, "Sorry about that, man."

 _'Don't give him the satisfaction of getting you angry...'_

He offered an extended hand to Joy, who shook it with a slightly painful grip. Disgust rubbed that hand under the table after he let go.

 _'You're in charge here, and the others are watching, so lead by example!'_

The green emotion simply smiled, fuming on the inside, and looked back up at the screen. He didn't hate Joy. But, man... there were times when the bubbly ball of happiness _really_ got underneath his skin. Still, he had to be the bigger person. _'You did it,'_ he thought, _'You diffused the situation. No worries.'_

In reality, it felt less like a shut-down bomb and more like one that failed to blow up.


	8. Falling to Pieces

_Joy and Sadness... well, Joy, had apparently been walking all night. With frazzled hair and sunken eyes, she reminded the film geek of a stressed mother or babysitter. With orbs in one hand and a (still adorably sullen) Sadness in the other, she declared, "This is not working."_

The film geek laughed at that, relating all too well. Everyone's been there; rowdy kids, jet lag, or maybe an important assignment had robbed sleep and forced people to work through the night many a time.

 _"Are we getting close?" Joy asked Sadness._

 _"Yeah," Sadness said, "Just another right..."_

 _Joy smiled._

 _"...then a left, and another left, then a right... then a left..."_

Joy's real-life counterpart snickered and recalled a memory; from the book, _'The Hobbit',_ where Gollumn was trying to hunt down Bilbo and make it to the caves' exit. The memory was blurry, out of focus, but it went something like, "Left, yes... right, two rights, precious... then four left, yes... yes..."

"Joy, we're missing the movie!"

"Sorry... kinda."

The memory went straight back down, revealing the screen again as morning came for Riley's mind.

 _"Riley's awake..." Joy moaned, accidentally dropping two of the cores. Scrambling to pick them up, she barely managed to snatch one from Sadness's sluggish reach. "Don't touch, remember? If you touch them," Joy explained with a touch of stress still in her voice, "they stay sad!"_

 _"Okay, s-sorry... I won't..." Sadness muttered, putting her hands under her back. The camera panned behind her. A stream of converted blue orbs trailed them up to that point. "...Starting now."_

The film geek's Sadness let out a hearty chuckle.

 _Joy gave an exacerbated groan (earning another chuckle from the real Sadness) "I can't take much more of this!"_

"Aww..." said the blue emotion watching the movie, "Poor Joy."

"Poor Joy?" Disgust said, "Poor Riley!"

"Yeah, her, too... Poor Riley..." Sadness nodded.

 _On-screen, Joy had abandoned Sadness after hearing the tell-tale echo of voices down a few rows. "Mind workers!" she'd exclaimed._

 _The scene shifted to show two (well, three, but one was off-camera) mind-workers inspecting several dulled memories. "Phone numbers..." one said, "We don't need these - they're in her phone!"_

 _"Just forget all of them," the other said, "Forget 'em!" The black-and-grey memories were promptly sucked down the tube and shot out into the memory dump._

 _Joy tried in vain to get their attention as they did the same to Riley's Piano lessons._

The sight caused the film geek to pause in remorse as he remembered his once-well-used guitar sitting on its stand out in the garage. Disgust and Sadness both pressed buttons, and a blue-green memory orb joined the others.

"Should we-..." Sadness asked.

"Yes," Disgust declared, whipping out another mental note reminding them to take up the guitar again soon, as Anger grumbled something about good money going to waste.

 _On-screen, having failed to rescue the memories of the presidents and the "cutie pie princess dolls" (Disgust gagged at the name), Joy was arguing with the mind workers._

 _"Hey! Bring those back!" she demanded._

 _"They're in the dump," one of the workers replied, "Nothing comes back from the dump."_

 _"Yeah, look, lady, this is our job," said her peer, resting an elbow on the vacuum tube that was used to take the orbs away._

 _"When Riley doesn't care about a memory - it fades! Happens to the best of them."_

 _The real-life Anger was gritting her teeth and barely reigning herself in. Joy, who was seated closest to her, could hear her whispered mantra of, "Just explain what's going on just explain what's going on just explain what's going on..."_

 _But one of the mind workers said with a laugh, "...except for this bad boy! This one will never fade!" He took down an orb from a cart they'd been carrying around, and a catchy tune began emanating from it._

The real Joy instantly began humming along with a smile. Suddenly, he stopped and looked over at his green commander, who had been humming along, too. When he saw that Joy was looking at him, he stopped.

"Well," Disgust said defensively, "It is catchy... Oh, don't look at me like that! Nothing wrong with a catchy song... Usually..."

 _"Sometimes we send that one up to headquarters for no reason!" the mind worker laughed._

 _"It plays in Riley's head over and over again, like a million times!" the other joined in._

"I wouldn't mind having that stuck in our head," Disgust continued, "What was it we had stuck in our head the other day, though?"

On cue, the Jurrassic Park theme began looping, flooding the intercom system all around them. Joy smiled. Disgust slapped himself for being so stupid. Sadness frowned. Fear scowled, and Anger? Well...

"Not now!" Anger moaned, slamming her head into the console. Quickly, she found the right console buttons and turned down the memory's volume to the lowest possible setting. Right away, she also turned up real life's volume, muttering, "...I'm not missing the movie because of a song."

After the mind workers sent the song up to HQ, Riley's Anger had a similar reaction."What the- this again?!" he shouted, crumpling up the paper in his hands. In the background, Fear groaned and rolled his eyes.

 _"Wait!" Riley's Joy said, chasing after the mind workers as the walked away laughing, "Do you know how to get to Friendship Island?"_

 _The scene then cut straight to Riley on her laptop, humming the gum song._

"Hmph," Disgust said to himself, "Odd choice for a cut. They could've removed the shot with Joy and just cut to Riley after the gum song started playing."

Joy was too busy humming to notice. "Oh man!" he said with a grin, "I love that tune! It's so catchy!"

 _On-screen, Riley was in the middle of a video chat with her friend Meg. "How was the Golden Gate Bridge?" her friend said._

 _"Oh, it was fine, I guess," Riley shrugged, clearly distracted. With a more interested tone, she added, "How was the game? Did you guys make it to the playoffs?"_

 _It was about that time that things turned sour. A new girl had arrived at Riley's former school, and seemed to be making friends quickly._

 _"Meg has a new friend already?" Fear panicked._

"Chill out," Disgust said as he lounged back and slurped his soda, "It's not like you've been replaced. People make friends. It's what they do."

 _Riley's Anger crumpled up the newspaper whose headline proclaimed that they'd been replaced._

A chortle jumped from Joy's throat.

 _"Hey, hey!" Disgust tried intervening, "Stay happy! We do not want to lose any more islands here, guys!"_

"Thank you!" the real Anger said, "Someone with common sense! Just don't touch the controls until you can calm down!"

 _"She's so good at hockey! It's like we can read eachother's minds!"_

"Oooh," the geek's Sadness winced, "Bad choice of words, there, Meg."

 _Riley's Anger took it none too well. "Oh, so you like to read minds, Meg? I've got something for you to read - right here!"_

 _"No, no," Fear shouted, trying to intervene, "Just find your happy place-"_

 _Anger snapped Fear's nose into his face, then let loose on the controls, his flaming head erupting. In response, Riley cut the conversation short. "I've gotta go," she said with a scowl._

 _"What?" Meg was confused._

 _"I've to to go!" Riley snarled, then slammed the laptop shut._

The real Sadness put his hands in his face and shook his head as Anger yelled, "Way to lose your temper!" Sadness smirked at the irony. He sat up, looking over at Fear.

"Hey, did you catch- What are you doing?" he asked.

Fear was leaning over, muttering to herself and scribbling on a piece of paper. She nervously kept fidgiting, scratching out words, adding new ones in, and biting the pencil tip as she thought. Sadness snapped his fingers a few times, finally getting his coworker's startled attention.

"What are you doing, Fear?" he asked.

Fear was confused. "Huh?" Suddenly, she realized. "Oh! This!" she said with a half-hearted laugh, "Well, since I'm not really needed right now, I figured I'd make good use of my time by jotting down some... by seeing if... what I mean is... eh..."

Sadness happened to glanced at a few snippets of a note:

 _'Does it have to do with Walt Disney? No, that can't be right! I.O. was Pete Docter's idea. But what if..._

 _'...speed of light. Einstein. Einstein was the Walt Disney of science. Ergo he discovered- no-_

 _'...Theoretically insert a metaphysical idea that would-_

 _'...Illuminati's secret wars with the Free Masons, then perhaps-'_

Fear quickly covered the notes up. Sadness shrugged and turned back to the screen. ' _As long as it keeps her from freaking out over an innocent little movie, whatever.'_

 _On-screen, Riley's Joy was walking by just in time to see Friendship Island join Goofball in the depths below. Crumbling in slow motion, it fell away before her eyes, leaving nothing but dust behind. Sadness walked up beside her, brightening the mood considerably... for the audience, at least._

 _"Oh no..." she moaned, "It's gone... goodbye, friendship..."_

Disgust actually coughed on some soda at that. A short laugh had hit him.

 _"...hello, loneliness..."_

...and then he was back to his usual self. Disgusted, he rolled his eyes and touched a button. He wasn't concerned about Joy - the yellow fuzzball was too busy laughing with Sadness.

 _"We'll just have to go the long way!" Joy said._

 _"Yeah, the long, long, long, long way..." Sadness said as she sunk to the ground. She stuck a leg up for Joy to drag her by. "I'm ready now," she said._

 _Frustrated, Joy grabbed her and resumed walking. "Ugh!" she said, "There's gotta be a better way..."_

 _At that moment, something - or someone (at least, something that looked like a someone) - caught her eye; it was a dancing elephant-like creature who was hairy and pink and dressed in a jacket and hat._

"What the-" Sadness said.

"Who the heck is that?!" added Anger.

"I don't know..." said Joy.

"He looks dumb," added Disgust.

"You think everything's dumb," Joy complained with a groan.

"Well, because most things are."

 _'Valid point,'_ Sadness thought as he shrugged. "Hey, Fear, what do you think?"

The purple emotion was squinting at the creature up on screen. "I don't know..." she said, "But I don't trust him."

"Shocker," Joy jabbed, "You not trusting someone."

"No, really - she has a point!" Disgust exclaimed, with eyes widened, "Look! He's stealing memories!"

"What?!" Anger shouted. Sure enough, while humming that irritating gum song, the elephant fuzz thing was picking and choosing memories he wanted and throwing them in his bag.

 _"I'll take you and you, but not you..." he said, stepping away. Then, turning back, "Oh, who am I kidding? I can't leave you!"_

After a moment, Fear nodded and said, "Guys... that's the villain."

"What?" Joy asked, even more incredulous than before, "His opening shot isn't even over yet and you've already decided he's the villain?"

"But look at him! He's all alone, taking memories, and shoving them into a bag!"

 _'Again; valid point,'_ Sadness shrugged.

Joy just scoffed. "Anger, are you hearing this?"

"Yeah," she said, "And Fear's right - nothing good can come from some... thing... stealing memories!"

"Might I add," said Disgust, "He was introduced to the audience by standing off in the distance in a shadow; that is never a good sign. I'm with Fear - we're being introduced to the film's villain."

"Yep."

"Uhuh."

"Indeed."

Only Joy was still skeptical about it, but before he could reply, his fictitious counterpart was trying to chase the elephant thing down.

 _"Wait! Hey, wait!" she shouted as she chased him down the corridors of Long-Term, the various orbs blurring by."_

"Oh no!" Fear said, "Sadness! She lost Sadness!"

Sadness gasped, "Oh... Oh!"

Joy just chugged more of his energy drink.

Anger said, through gritted teeth, "That pink punk's knocking memories over right and left!"

Disgust leaned forward, one hand on his chin and the other in his armrest. "Maybe..." he said, then snapped his fingers, "I think that's Forgetfulness."

"Forgetfulness?" Sadness asked.

"Yeah. It's the only explanation for why he'd be stealing memories!"

"Uh... but I've never heard of a ' _Forgetfulness_ ' before."

"Neither have I, but when was the last time _you_ left HQ? For all we know, we just never happened to run into him-... it."

"Well... Valid... uh... yeah, I guess you're right. That might actually be a thing."

"Oh goodness!" Fear stuttered, "If that's true, then it means we have a monster running around our memories, gobbling them up like popcorn! Oh, this is terrible! We've gotta do something! We-"

Sadness grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Calm down!" he said firmly.

She froze. After taking a deep breath, she slowly let it out and said, "Okay."

Everyone went back to watching the film.

 _Joy rounded a corner, coming face-to-face witha dead end. She looked confused. It was as if he'd poofed out of existence! However, on looking to her right, she saw him, curled up and covering his head, his eyes closed tightly as he tried to hide. Hestiantly, Joy said, "Excuse me?"_

 _"Ah!" the thing shouted, scrambling to the opposite wall. He pinned himself up against it. His eyes jolted left and right as he tried to think. "Oh... uh..." he said, still acting twitchy, "I was just- I was looking for, um..." Suddenly, he grabbed a memory and threw it off screen, "Diversion! So long, sucker!"he shouted, promptly running into a nearby cart of orbs. Several spilled out as the big pink lug came tumbling to the ground. "Ow!"_

 _"Wait!" Joy said, "I know you!"_

 _Scrambling to his feet, the fluffy monster replied, "No you don't... I get that a lot - I look like a lot of people."_

The real Joy couldn't help himself. He burst out into a fit of laughter, hitting the buttons a few times as chuckles rocked his body. Outside, the film geek laughed, too (though not nearly as hard as his Joy did). Then he paused.

Nobody else in the entire theater had laughed at that.

Inside his HQ, all eyes were on Joy as he nervously stood up. "Uh... I, uh... you... we... I gotta go get a drink be right back bye!" With that, he took off, cheeks burning in embarrassment.

"Wait," Disgust said after realizing what just happened, "Did nobody else in the entire theater get that joke? Or even find it funny?"

"Oh, this is so embarassing..." Fear muttered, covering her face.

"Eh, forget 'em," Anger said through a mouthful of popcorn, "They don't care."

 _On-screen, the face of Riley's Joy brightened up. "Bing Bong!" she shouted in recognition._

"Eh?"

"Who?"

"What?"

"Huh?"

 _"Riley's Imaginary Friend!" the glowing emotion concluded._

 _Bing Bong gasped. "You really do know me?" he asked._

 _"Of course! Riley loved playing with you! You two were best friends!" Joy began saying, elated at meeting such a famous figure from Riley's childhood._

"...Oh!" Sadness - the real one - said, "Well, I guess... I guess that means he's not 'Forgetfulness' after all - he's just a sad little forgotten figment of Riley's imagination. We were suspicious for nothing."

"I dunno..." Fear muttered, "I still get the creeps from lookin' at him. Something is definitely fishy about this character."

"I'm with you there," Anger nodded, "I don't like the way he was going around stealing memory orbs."

"Do we have any leftover imaginary friends?" Fear asked quizzically.

Disgust was too absorbed to notice; scratching his chin, leaning forward, squinting hard - he was the picture of deep thought. 'What does it symbolize?' he was thinking, _'What are the directors trying to say by having him steal memories? What? What is it?'_

"Disgust!"

"Huh?" He looked up, nearly spilling his drink, "What?"

"I asked if we had any imaginary friends."

"Uh..." he thought about it for all of five seconds before saying, "No, actually."

"Really?" Sadness asked, "I could've sworn we-"

"No!" the green emotion shouted, crushing the mint that was in his hand, "No. We didn't. We never did. Okay?"

"Okay..." Sadness said, "If you say so."

 _Bing Bong - upon learning who it was he was talking do - was equally elated to meet Joy (and Sadness) and promptly agreed to help lead them to Headquarters. As they walked, Joy continued her stream of words. "It is great to see you again! I gotta tell you, I am such a huge fan of your work. Do you remember when you and Riley were in a band? I went to all of your concerts!"_

 _The scene switched to a tiny Riley smacking away on pots and pans as her imaginary friend blew away on his trumpet-like nose._

 _"Heh, yeah," Bing Bong said, reflecting on that moment, "I blew a mean nose."_

 _"Watching you play tag was such a treat!" Joy added._

 _"Two time world champ!" Bing Bong said proudly._

 _"Oh, and remember your rocket?"_

 _"Of course! It runs on song power!"_

 _"That's right - your theme song!"_

 _At which point, the two launched into a tune that may have been cute for a toddler or baby, but - admittedly - sounded exactly as you'd expect._

 _"Who's your friend that likes to play?"_

 _"Bing Bong! Bing Bong!"_

 _"His rocket makes you yell hooray?"_

 _"Bing Bong! Bing Bong!"_

Disgust had his hat pulled down over his face, his hands rammed into his ears. Anger was stiff all over, her teeth gritted and her knuckles clenched. "If they do that again," she said, "I am going to burn something."

"I dunno," Sadness said, "I thought it was cute."

 _On screen, Riley's Sadness asked the obvious question: "What exactly are you supposed to be?"_

 _"Well, it's kinda weird," Bing Bong replied, "I'm mostly cotton candy, but - shape-wise, I'm part cat, part elephant, and part dolphin."_

 _"Dolphin?"_

 _To demonstrate, Bing Bong's face contorted into an obscene exaggeration of a dolphin's, with spaced out eyes gazing out into nowhere as his lower jaw jutted out and made a rain of clicking sounds._

Fear jolted back. "Whoa!" she said, "Whoa! Okay, I'm fine... that was... I did not expect to see that."

"Hahahahah! Okay, what did I miss?" Joy said. He'd just caught the end of that scene as he walked back, a fresh drink in hand.

"That's Bing Bong. He used to be Riley's imaginary friend before she outgrew him," Sadness explained, "Now he wants to lead them back to HQ."

"You also missed the worst song in the world," Disgust said, "But I have a feeling you'd enjoy it better because of how gratingly bad it is."

Joy just scoffed and sat down.

 _"So... what have you been up to?" Riley's Joy asked._

 _"Well, there's not much call for imaginary friends lately, so I'm just..." Bing Bong began, but his voice trailed off as he finished, "out of a job."_

"Oh, man, that stinks," Sadness said, shaking his head.

 _"Well," Joy said, "When I get back up to Headquarters, I'll make sure Riley remembers you!"_

 _"You will?" Bing Bong asked._

 _"Of course!"_

 _"Hahah! This is the greatest day of my life!" The imaginary friend was so happy he began dancing around, only to jump up and land on his leg too hard. "Oww!" he shouted before collapsing onto the ground._

Sadness snorted a laugh before slamming his hands over his mouth, trying to not look like a total jerk.

"Heh," Disgust chuckled.

"You think that's funny?" asked Joy incredulously.

"Um... yeah, actually."

"Wow! You're acting really-"

"Shush!" Anger hissed, "Shut it or I'm kicking all of you out so I can watch this blasted movie on my own!" While nobody took the threat seriously, it was enough to shut them up.

* * *

Between the odd, candy-themed tears, his overly-enthusiastic nature, and the time/space-defying bag that poured out a mountain of stolen memories (and some other junk), the real emotions - especially Fear, but not Joy- grew less and less trusting of Bing Bong with each passing moment. Even Sadness couldn't help but get a very bad feeling about him. His idea of a shortcut only solidified that feeling.

 _"The station is right through here," Bing Bong explained, opening the door to what was a large, pitch-black area nestled inside what looked like a giant machine._

"Uh... no," Fear said.

 _"After you," Bing Bong said to Joy, gesturing in._

"He's leading them into a trap!" Fear yelled, hitting a button in the process.

"Don't go in there!" Anger added, "Just... Just don't!"

 _"Joy," Riley's Sadness said, "We shouldn't go in there."_

 _"Bing Bong says it's the quickest way to headquarters," Joy rebutted._

"Sheesh, you're so trusting of someone who has who-knows-what motive!" Disgust said, "At least ask another mind worker if it's safe!"

"Or - better yet - listen to Sadness!" Fear said, "She is the one who's trying to follow the rules! You know; those things that keep everything from falling apart!"

 _"This is Abstract Thought!" Sadness exclaimed._

 _"What are you talking about?" asked Bing Bong, sounding genuinely confused, "I go in here all the time! It's a shortcut, you see? D-A-N-G-E-R: 'Shortcut!' I'll prove it to you!" With which words, the elephantine piece of cotton candy hopped right in._

"Hmm..." Disgust said, "Well, that makes sense."

"What makes sense?" asked Joy.

"Well, it makes sense that an imaginary friend wouldn't be affected by Abstract Thought! Right? I mean, we wouldn't know because we never had an imaginary friend-"

"Except for-" Joy began.

"Ahem! _We'll never know because we never had an imaginary friend,_ but maybe that means Bing Bong's about to _accidentally_ kill them... Or at least mess them up pretty bad."

 _Despite Sadness's protests, Joy walked right in, and her small blue companion felt obliged to follow. Right on cue, it was lunchtime for Riley, who sat alone and tried to process some abstract concepts. Two mind workers arrived with raw materials ready to be processed._

 _"Okay," one said, "So what abstract concept are we trying to comprehend today?"_

 _"Uh..." said the other, looking at his notepad, "Loneliness..."_

 _His coworker looked in and said, "Huh... there's still some stuff in there. I'm gonna turn it on for a minute and burn out the gunk."_

 _She promptly shut the door._

"Run!" Fear yelled, leaping over the table and running up to the screen. Jumping a few times, she shouted (as if Riley's emotions could hear her), "Run! Get out! Go away! You're so dead!"

"Watch," Disgust said, "This is the part where Bing Bong leaves them for dead and takes the bag for himself! I'm still not convinced this guy's not the villain."

"Well," Joy responded, "I - for one-"

"Aaah!" Fear shouted, scrambling away from the screen and hiding beneath the console as Riley's Abstract thought activated, with all sorts of vague shapes floating in the air.

 _"What's happening?"_

"Gee," Disgust quipped, "I don't know. Maybe Riley's Abstract thought is firing up, and you wouldn't be in this trouble if you had any common sense?"

Joy gritted his teeth at the remark.

 _"Huh, never seen this before," said Bing Bong, turning around to reveal a distorted, cubic face._

 _Joy and Sadness yelped in fright. Instantly, they - too - became cubic, and - again - were startled by eachother's appearances._

 _"My face!" exclaimed Bing Bong, "My beautiful face!"_

The real Joy snorted.

 _"What is going on?" Riley's Joy asked._

 _"We're abstracting!" Sadness explained, "There are four stages! This is the first; non-objective fragmentation!"_

 _"Alright, do not panic!" Bing Bong said, "What is important is that we all stay together."_

 _Right away, they all collapsed._

Joy chuckled.

Disgust groaned.

Joy glared.

 _"We're in the second stage," Sadness continued, "We're deconstructing!"_

"Ooh," said Anger, "my favorite one!"

"Mine, too," agreed Disgust.

"It's all scary!" came Fear's trembling voice from beneath the table, "Tell me when it's over!"

 _"I can't feel my legs!" Bing Bong said, then, on touching one, added, "Oh, there they are."_

"Boo," Disgust droned, "I saw that one coming a mile away!"

"That's it!" Joy shouted, "I'm sick of you and your negativity!"

After a shocked pause, Disgust found his words. "Excuse me for keeping us smart!"

 _"We've gotta get out of here!" Riley's Sadness said as she kicked her own head forward, trying to hobble to the exit with the others, "Before we're nothing but shape and color! We'll get stuck here forever!"_

 _"Stuck?!" Joy exclaimed, "Why did we come in here?!"_

 _"I told you!" Bing Bong shouted back, "It's a shortcut!"_

"I'm sure there was something wrong with that, too, wasn't there?" Joy spat.

"As a matter of fact," snarled Disgust, "Riley's Sadness is ex positing _too_ much, and it's getting on my nerves - the pacing's too cluttered and rushed!"

"Well, _I_ think it's hilarious!"

"Good for you!"

"Maybe you guys should calm down," Sadness nervously suggested, going entirely unheard by the others.

 _On-screen, everything was crushed flat..._

Fear gasped.

 _...and then returned to life, in the form of a cartoony, 2D shape._

Fear sighed in relief.

"And you know what?" Joy added, butting heads with Disgust, "I think the art shift here was neat!"

"I never said it wasn't!"

 _"We're two-dimensional!" Riley's Sadness said, "That's stage three!"_

"Well, gee, thanks for pointing out the obvious!" Anger shouted.

"Oh, not you, too! Calm down, sis!" Sadness said, "It's just a movie!"

"I'm with Anger on this," Disgust said as he shoved Joy away, "If Sadness would just _shut up_ for two seconds, the scene would be _funnier_."

The real Sadness gasped, then his eyes began watering.

"Now look what you've done, jerk!" Joy said.

"Rrgh," Disgust snarled, "I meant _Riley's Sadness!_ "

 _"We're getting nowhere," her Joy said._

 _"Depth!" shouted Bing Bong, "I'm lacking depth!"_

 _"Come on," Joy said. Soon enough, the flat figurines leapt up and cheated the horizon, using it as a lever to pull themselves higher and next to the doorway._

 _"We can't fit!" Joy said, as she attempted to go through the door._

"No dip, Sherlock!" Disgust riffed.

 _Poof! Another shift as each of them became symbols; a jagged star for Joy, a teardrop for Sadness, and some sort of pink blob ending in a trunk for Bing Bong._

 _"Oh no! We're non-figurative!" Sadness said, "This is the last stage!"_

"Th-they're gonna- die..." Sadness moaned through tears.

"Way to go, Disgust!" Joy said, "Sadness is crying for no good reason!"

"Would you just let me do my job, man?!" Disgust shouted, clenching the sides of his hat, "This is a _little kids'_ movie! It's aimed for children! Of course there are going to be parts that annoy us! So what if-"

"Would you stop nitpicking-"

"Hey!" Anger yelled, leaping to her feet, "Don't interrupt!"

"B-But you just did..." Sadness pointed out.

"I- Ooh- You... Just! _Aaaugh!_ " Anger erupted into a scorching blaze of heat. With a hiss, Joy backed away and Sadness stumbled down from the bright light. Disgust groaned, muttered something under his breath, and ran off.

 _Falling on her face again, Riley's Sadness had given up hope... only to discover a way out after all: she'd become a straight line. "Wait!" she said, "We're two dimensional! Fall on your face!"_

 _Without missing another second, the three did so, becoming narrow lines and leaping out of that death trap..._

 _...just in time to see the Train of Thought leave._

"Enough!" shouted Disgust through a megaphone.

Everyone (except Fear, who was under the table with her hands over her ears) looked up at him. He was over in the back, standing on the stairs that led up to his bedroom. He had a bag over his arm and a remote in his hand. They couldn't see it from where they were, but he had pressed a _'temporary time freeze'_ button. The procedure cost a lot of energy, rendering it useless for the rest of the month, but Disgust felt this was an emergency that warranted it.

As he walked down the stairs, he began taking out four other remotes and passing them to his coworkers. "First we had to sleep in separate rooms because we couldn't get along," he said, "Now _this_. But no matter; it pays to be prepared. I ordered these after the _'Hobbit Trilogy'_ fiasco, and now I see that it was a good idea."

"Wh-Wh... What are the-ey?" Sadness said through some final sniffles.

"Observe," Disgust said, flicking his wrist and pressing a button on his remote. Joy tried beating him to it, having guessed what he was up to. They wound up pressing buttons at the same time. Instantly, the console lit up green and yellow, and a new orb came rolling in, courtesy of the previous scene. Its yellow-and-green surface slid up and _clinked_ quietly against the others.

"Oh, nice," Joy said, "Another snot-colored ball to collect in Long Term."

"I figured you'd think that," Disgust said, "Which is why I'm initiating the _'Mixed Bag'_ contingency. Now, in-"

"Oh, come on! Really?" Joy protested.

"Yes, really," Disgust scolded. "Until we can learn to play nicely, we'll each have to view the screen and do our jobs remotely. It's a shame that it's come to this, but that's why I prepared. I think we all know the drill, but just in case we don't, I'm going to review it once more." Ignoring the groans of protest, Disgust began pacing up and down as he spoke. "Our bedrooms have retractable screens in them. We can use these to observe the main monitor from within our rooms. As a bonus, we can't see the physical console nor the memories that are being created. Meaning we won't be able to complain if the memory orbs start getting colors or mixes of colors that we don't like. We can continue on like usual, with more natural reactions to the film than if we were wasting time bickering like children," it may have just been in his head, but Joy felt that last remark was directed at him. "Any questions?"

"Yeah," Sadness said, hesitantly raising his hand, "What if we gotta go to the bathroom?"

"Then we just get out and go down," Anger said abruptly, "It's not like we're grounded or anything; our work stations just moved."

"Right," Disgust said with a nod, "Any other questions?"

There were none.

"Alright, let's go - the time lock will only last one more minute."

Anger, Disgust, Joy, and Sadness each walked to their separate rooms, scattered around headquarters. _'Alright,'_ Disgust thought as he situated himself on his chair, facing the newly-activated mini-screen, _'this should be better; we can't see the console, ergo we can't bicker over who does what, ergo things react the way they should.'_ Smiling, he opened another diet soda and began drinking it down, content that the _"Mixed Bag"_ contingency was - so far - operating as intended.


	9. Happy Happy Happy

_"Stop!" Joy called out, her star-like shape spinning and falling again as the effects of Abstract Thought slowly wore off. "Stop!" But it was too late - the train was off and away, heading to some other part of Riley's mind._

In his dark, aqua-colored room, Sadness was seated on his bed's edge, looking at the glowing screen in front of him. The only other light was a moon-shaped night lamp, currently illuminating a wall next to the emotion's bed, where he had taped notes on everything they were doing wrong in life (he tended to think about that a lot before rolling off to sleep). But, for now, he was focused on the film. He felt a twinge of sympathy for Riley's Joy and nudged the appropriate button on his remote.

 _Groaning in frustration, Joy turned to look at the mostly reformed Bing Bong. "I thought that was a shortcut!"_

 _"I thought so, too," Bing Bong explained, "But wow, we should not have gone in there - that was dangerous! They really should put up a sign."_

Anger roared, "They _did!_ " before twisting a knob on her remote. In the red glare of her quarters, she was seated on a simple wooden chair, snacks on a chipped and cracked (but still usable) coffee table in front of her. Next to them, a fan was going at full speed, struggling (in conjunction with a much-abused air conditioner) to keep the blood-red room at a sane temperature.

 _"How long to the next train station?" Joy asked._

 _"There's one nearby, and - get this - it always stops off there, right before going to headquarters! Follow me!"_

 _The pink elephant moved to head on through but was stopped by Joy. "Whoa, this isn't another one of your shortcuts is it?"_

 _Bing Bong let out a hearty laugh and said, "Yeah!"_

"Hahahaaah!" Joy chuckled as he flopped onto his beanbag chair, opening a fresh energy drink. He paused a moment to flip a switch on his small remote, then pitched an empty can across the glaringly bright room and into a recycling bin, which was overflowing with a variety of plastic and paper wrappers from every instant food and caffeinated beverage one could imagine.

 _As the pink elephant skipped off across the tracks, Joy pulled Sadness off to the side. "Is there really another station?"_

 _"Uhuh," her soft-spoken companion said, "Right through there."_

 _"Welcome to Imagination Land!" Bing Bong declared, arms branching wide as he stood at the entrance to what was sure to be the most exciting segment of Riley's mind. Bright colors were everywhere._

 _Joy smiled in wonder. "Imagination Land?"_

Disgust felt his stomach churn at the sight, and he immediately stopped slurping his soda long enough to adjust a small lever on his remote. Soon, he situated himself back in his lime-colored chair and continued watching. Briefly, he glanced up at the perfectly centered digital clock on a shelf. _'Okay,'_ he thought _, 'you can get through this; Imagination Land probably won't last that long.'_

 _"Of course! I come here all the time," Bing Bong said as they walked through, "I'm practically the mayor... hey! You guys hungry? There's French Fry Forest!" running over to the side, he grabbed one of the tall fries and took a bite of it._

 _"No way!" Joy exclaimed._

"Ooh!" the real Joy said, "That looks delicious!"

"Aw, man..." Sadness clutched his gut, "That makes me feel hungry."

 _"Oh, check it out!" Bing Bong said, scurrying off to another section, eager to share with his newfound friends, "Trophy Town!" He stood in front of a soccer net and promptly kicked a nearby ball in. "Everyone's a winner!"_

"Yuck," Disgust muttered.

In HQ itself, not a whisper could be heard, save the constant audio coming from the main screen. The only noise was a metallic _clink_ as a freshly-made green marble came rolling in. Then all was still again. You wouldn't know that anyone was there, for how placid it all was. In fact, you'd have to strain your ears _very_ hard to make out the _scritch-scratch_ of a pencil on paper.

 _Sure enough, a crowd of people appeared and then vanished just as quickly, leaving Bing bong decorated with a variety of first-place ribbons and trophies. "I won first place!" he declared._

 _"Me too!" added Joy, as the crowd left her with a gleaming golden trophy._

 _"Aww..." droned Sadness, glancing at her green ribbon, "Participation award."_

Joy's faint laughter came echoing in from somewhere else in the building, followed by a gold-and-blue marble gleaming into existence.

 _From Cloud Town to a house of cards, the trio explored Riley's very active imagination, with Bing Bong acting as tour guide, Joy bouncing along, and Sadness silently sulking in the back._

 _"Oh, wait! Hang on just a minute!" Bing Bong said, rushing over and pushing some piled-up cards aside. From under them, he pulled out a wagon with wings taped to its side and a broomstick stuck to its back._

 _Joy gasped, "Your rocket!"_

"Cool!" the film geek's Joy said, "Oh, that's so neat!"

"If I hear that song one more time..." Anger muttered to herself.

 _"Yeah!" Bing Bong said, "I've held on to it all this time so that I can take Riley to the moon!" With a swift shake of his hand, he smacked the house of cards, and they all came crashing down, ruining the mind workers labors. "Oh, I'm so sorry," he sheepishly added._

 _Clink!_ Another blue-and-yellow orb, followed swiftly by a green one.

 _One cut later, and the trio was still walking through, with the addition of Bing Bong's rocket. "I love imagination land!" Joy was saying._

 _"Isn't it great?" replied Bing Bong, "and there's always something new, like-"_

 _They froze in their tracks and looked up at an odd machine. In front, its spinning panels formed the semblance of a teenage boy, with varying outfits and styles. With a clank, a teenage boy with overdone hair and a laid-back posture came out of the conveyor up front._

 _"Who the heck is that?"_

 _"Imaginary boyfriend," a mind worker explained as he pressed another button._

 _"I would die for Riley!" said the 'boyfriend' in question, sounding like he was taken straight from a soap opera._

 _'Oh good grief,'_ Disgust thought to himself, _'Gag. Me. At least we never...'_ Suddenly, his eyes got wide. Someone was recalling a memory! Quickly he tried pulling it away, but not before a brief glimpse of a long-since-forgotten "imaginary girlfriend," popped up. It was only there for a fraction of a second, but the concept alone was cringe-inducing. Disgust groaned and felt himself blush in embarrassment as he cranked a knob and slammed his hat over his face. His cheeks weren't the only things burning, though. Over in Anger's bedroom, her wooden chair and ceiling fan had caught fire again. Smoke alarms went off. A sprinkler system activated from within.

After a moment, the sheepish sound of Joy apologizing could be heard.

Smoke billowed from Anger's room, and she stumbled out, coughing and muttering under her breath. Looking down, she saw the remote in her hand, ruined. Its buttons were popped, its wires were toast, and ash covered most of it. Snarling, she chucked it away and stomped over to the console. "Stupid," she said to herself, "Stupid stupid stupid idea! Well, if he wanted it to work _so badly_ , then he should've given me a _fireproof_ remote! Gah!" Folding her arms, she glared up at the screen.

 _Bing Bong winced at Riley's Imaginary Boyfriend. Joy shrunk back, repulsed. Sadness smiled quietly._

They wouldn't know it, but Joy and Sadness both said, "Aww" at the same time.

Disgust choked on another mint.

 _"I don't remember seeing you before," Joy declared, clearly not getting the concept._

 _"I live in Canada."_

 _An awkward pause followed, but Joy quickly shook off her repulsed expression and the group was marching away again (with Sadness still waddling in the back, casting one last glance in the imaginary boyfriend's direction). "Hey," Bing Bong said, "Come on, we're nearly to the train!"_

 _"Riley," Joy announced triumphantly, "Here we come!"_

* * *

 _Meanwhile, on the outside, Riley was gearing up for hockey tryouts. A swarm of kids raced around the rink, darting left and right and sending the puck flying everywhere. Sitting beside Riley in the bleachers, Mrs. Anderson was trying to keep her daughter's spirits up and ready. When it was time for Riley to jump in, her Fear attempted to use a random hockey memory in place of a core one. That went about as well as the film geek's emotions expected, resulting in Riley's Anger giving up with and seizing the controls, throwing yet another predictable (_ In the real Disgust's eyes) _tantrum._

"Way to stay cool, man," the real Anger said as she slurped a soda. Suddenly, she stopped, listening carefully. Mumbling. She was hearing mumbling. Setting the cup down, she squinted and strained her ears. The mumbling was coming from... right in front of her? She bent down and looked underneath the console "Fear! The heck are you doing?"

"Wha- ow!" Startled, the purple emotion had jumped up and smacked her head on the underside. Wearily, she got to her chair and dusted off. "Oh, nothing. Not a thing. Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

But Anger was still looking down, underneath the console. A web of notes and drawings was strung about in an intricate maze. "What's all this?" she asked.

"Oh, _that!_ " Fear responded, "It's... notes."

"Notes on what?"

"No! Don't pick that up! They're all-"

Anger shoved Fear way as she read through one of the papers. "Fear," she said, "This is dumb."

"...I know," she admitted.

"You're dumb."

"I know." She slouched over in defeat only for a second before becoming jittery again. "But it's just so _wrong! It's violating! Disney knows things they shouldn't know, you know?"_

"No."

"I mean, _why_ did they produce this film, huh? What... what _idea_ was made that allowed them to see into a _mind_ and figure out how emotions work?"

Anger just shrugged, "I dunno. What's it matter? Is there a _point_ to all this gibberish you've made?" Fear opened her mouth to speak, but Anger finished with, "I mean _besides_ needing a plan to be prepared for something bad."

Fear thought. She scratched her chin, bit a pencil, and strummed her fingers on the console, but to no avail. "I don't _know_ , Anger, any more than you know why you get mad, or- or why Disgust knows why he gets..."

It was then that she noticed the emptiness of the room.

"...hey, where _is_ everyone else, anyway?"

Anger groaned.

* * *

 _Over in Imagination Land, Joy was in just the right position to see Hockey Island fall with a roar of pain._

 _"Hockey?!" Joy exclaimed, "Oh, no! No! She loves hockey... she can't give up hockey!" Looking up at Bing Bong, she added, "We have to hurry."_

 _"Sure thing," he said, understanding the urgency of the situation, "this way, just past Graham-Cracker Castle..."_

 _Another shock hit them as they stepped forward. The castle was nowhere to be seen; only its crumbled foundation remained, ripped from the rest of it as mind workers swept up the excess rubble._

Disgust snorted once, thankful that he wasn't taking a drink at the time, otherwise the stinging beverage would have definitely shot out through his nostrils.

 _"Hey!" Bing Bong said, "Graham-Cracker Castle used to be right here! I wonder why the moved it. Hey, what's going on-" He stopped suddenly, seeing a wrecking ball as it swung high in the air, slamming into a white building that exploded into a cloud of glitter. "Princess Dreamworld!" the imaginary friend gasped. It all came crumbling down._

Disgust actually chuckled at the sight. _'That's... that's hilarious,'_ he thought to himself. _'They were blabbering too much for a second there, which is typical, but ripping that castle and the teddy bear more than made up for it.'_

 _A much worse sight hit their eyes; among the piles of other junk, it was being shoveled away and thrown in with some other scraps, ready to be taken to the memory dump._

"Oh no!" Sadness exclaimed as he watched.

 _"Wait!" Bing Bong shouted, chasing the mind workers, "Riley and I were still using that rocket! It- I-It still has some song power left!" But they weren't listening. In his desperation, the pink elephant sung, "Who's your friend who likes to play?!"_

 _The rocket sputtered a few notes in response, jolting forward. But it was only a minor inconvenience to the mind workers as they hauled it off. In only a matter of seconds, it and the junk it was with were being pushed towards the edge._

The blue emotion cringed.

 _"No!" a panicked Bing Bong said, "You can't take my rocket to the dump! Riley and I were going to the moon!"_

 _His words fell on deaf ears, and his rocket fell into the chasm below._

Sadness let his jaw drop open.

 _Bing Bong slumped over in utter defeat, his watery eyes looking down at the blackness below._

Bing Bong's face was nothing but depressing, and Sadness pressed a _'Sympathetic Frown_ _'_ button. Poor, poor Bing Bong.

 _Riley's Joy tried her best to cheer him up. "Hey, it's okay - don't be sad... everything's gonna be alright."_

 _"She can't be done with me..." was all Bing Bong said._

"Oh, please no!" Sadness said, "Oh, that's even worse!" he began tearing up as well, his voice breaking.

 _Making a goofy face didn't lighten him up, he wasn't ticklish enough to laugh, and Joy's attempt at a game ("How About You Point Us to the Train Station and We Go There?") failed to help at all. Bing Bong still was on the brink of tears._

"Don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry..." Sadness chanted to himself. His breathing became weighted with heavy gasps as he tried to keep the hot tears down. They fought against him, straining to break free and go gushing across his face. He sniffed, trying to force them in.

 _Quietly, Riley's Sadness sat down beside him. "That's sad," she said, "They took away you rocket."_

 _"Sadness!" Joy said._

 _"Sorry," her blue coworker mumbled._

 _Then it got quiet again._

"K-K-Keep it to-ogether..." Sadness told himself.

 _"We were best friends," Bing Bong said._

 _"You two must have had a lot of fun together," Sadness replied._

 _"Oh, yeah - we sure did," through his tears, a faint smile crept onto Bing Bong's face, "Once we traveled back in time. We had breakfast twice that day..."_

 _"Wow, I bet she really liked that."_

 _"Oh, she did..." he said, before completely losing it. Bursting into a fountain of candy tears, Bing Bong embraced Sadness in a hug._

"It... I... I c-c-can't!" Sadness shouted, "Forget it!" and then he exploded into a fountain of tears. Crying and crying and crying, he rocked back and forth on his bed, knees up to his chest and eyes practically raining. Trembling, he forced himself to sit up with his weak arms and pressed the _'Tear Up'_ button on the remote. Then he went back to being a sniffling, blubbering mess. He pressed the button again. He cried again. Through tear-filled eyes, he looked back at the remote... and his crying stopped.

"Hey," he whispered, "Wh-Wh-What gives?" He pressed the device a few more times, but it didn't respond. It wasn't doing a thing! Not a flicker went through it, not a glow in response. Sadness fiddled with it some more, but it reamined dead - and the film geek remained with only a sympathetic twinge in his heart for Bing Bong, eyes completely dry. Now more puzzled than sad, the blue emotion blew his nose and composed himself before making a decision. _'Well,'_ he thought, _'If the remote's broke, there's no use being up here. I_ need _to be at my station. Disgust can just get happy.'_

Taking his snack and soda with him, Sadness chucked the device onto his bed and left the room.

* * *

 _Bing Bong finally got ahold of himself and let go. Standing up, he said, "Okay. I'm okay. The train station is this way," and promptly walked over to it._

 _Joy's jaw dropped as she ran to catch up with Sadness and Bing Bong. "Hey," she asked, putting a hand on Sadness's shoulder, "How did you do that?"_

 _"Well, he was sad," Sadness explained, "So I listened to him-"_

 _But - just as Joy was starting to understand - Bing Bong interrupted with a triumphant cry. "Hey! Guys! The train!"_

 _There it was, the Train of Thought. With smiles all around, the trio hopped on board one of its open carts, stacked with boxes. The train took off. Joy couldn't stop grinning. "We made it!" she declared, twirling happily, "We're finally gonna get home!"_

 _Crash! She accidentally knocked two of the boxes over, spilling a variety of chips into a pile in the center. "Oh no," she said, scrambling to fix the mess, "these facts and opinions look so similar!"_

 _"Oh, don't worry about it," Bing Bong replied, picking some up and dumping them into the nearest empty box, "Happens all the time!"_

"Pffft! Hahahahahaah! Oh, that's too funny!" Joy said, tears in is eyes from how funny he found it. Uncontrollably shaking, he fell backwards, smacking his head against the ground. It didn't slow his laughter a bit.

 _In HQ, nobody was feeling nearly as happy. "On a scale of one to ten," Disgust said, "I give this day an F."_

 _Anger strangled his newspaper at that. "Well, why don't we quit standing around and do something!" With that, he kicked a chair away._

 _"Like what, genius?" Disgust retorted._

 _"Quitting!" Fear came walking in, holding a suitcase. "That's what I'm doing," he said as he stood on the recall tube's slot, "Sure, it's the coward's way out, but this coward is gonna survive!"_

Joy pulled himself up, rubbing the back of his head. It hurt, but - somehow - that only made things funnier for him.

 _After Fear pressed the button and the tube came over him, everything shook. A torrent of recalled memories flooded the tube, pummeling the poor purple emotion. The tube retracted, and memories were spilled across the floor, with Fear at the center of the debacle._

"Bahahaah!" He guffawed. His loud laughter bounced all around the room, whose sound-proofed (Disgusts's idea) walls barely contained the emotion's outbursts. His smile faltered for a second as he recalled Disgust. It was his idea to separate the rooms. It was his idea to soundproof. It was his idea to enact this _"Mixed Bag"_ contingency. _Always_ finding things wrong. _Always_ discovering something to be annoyed by. _Never_ able to just enjoy a movie or book or _anything._

With a jerk of his hand, Joy cracked open a soda can.

 _"We can't quit, genius!" Disgust said. In response, Fear coughed up a green memory that had been lodged in his throat. "Ew!" his green coworker said, shrinking away from the sight, "I thought we were supposed to be keeping Riley happy!"_

His laughter returned, but was soon snatched away as he realized something. "I gotta go," he said. Picking up his remote, he scurried down his room's steps, not registering Sadness, whom he nearly crashed into as he rocketed down past HQ and to the restrooms. Sweet relief came soon enough, and he whistled a merry tune to himself as he walked back. His leisurely pace stopped when he saw a sign posted up by the door... courtesy of Disgust, of course: "REMEMBER TO WASH! GERMS ARE GROSS!"

Grumbling, he turned around and went back to the sinks. As the bubbles foamed up over his hands, Joy thought to himself.

 _'What's his deal? Who died and made him King of HQ?'_ He thought, actually frowning as he scrubbed his palms. _'He's a Scrooge, that's all. He hates having fun. He hates enjoying things. He hates laughing. He's way too serious... unfortunately, he's the one who happens to be in charge.'_ Rinsing the suds off, Joy happened to glance up in the mirror. He looked around, made sure nobody was watching, and then did his best impression of the green feeling.

"I hate that! That's cliched! Blah blah blah! I'm just... I don't like... Stop having fun... Uh..." Joy struggled to come up with a scathing, searing burn, something that would _perfectly_ show what he felt. But he couldn't think of it. In fact, had Disgust been here, _he_ probably would've beat Joy to the punch and made a witty remark before he could open his mouth.

 _'Maybe he's right...'_ Joy frowned at the thought. _'Maybe I_ am _being too... simplistic. I'm like Riley's Joy, aren't I? Trying so hard to constantly make things happy, when - in reality - the human needs to feel something else. Something_ intelligent, _not sheer, dumb happiness...'_ Jerking a paper towel out, Joy dried his hands off. _'No. It's wrong!_ _Disgust's wrong. He knows about sanitation and hygiene, but so far he's done nothing but nitpick this film, pointing out_ every little mistake _he can find! And I'm here to balance that.'_

With that, the emotion slapped a smile on his face and shoved the paper towel in the trash can. He marched out of the restroom more brightly than usual.

* * *

In HQ, Sadness had arrived just after Anger and Fear left to get more snacks, and just before Joy came blasting by. "Whoa!" he shouted, "Watch out, man! You almost..." but, realizing that the living lightbulb was too far gone to hear him, he'd shrugged and gone back to his station, contemplating whether the remotes were malfunctioning for anyone else or not. A quick glance at the memories told him they were working fine for the others, as red, green, and golden spheres all lined the wall. He didn't see any of Fear's memories, but fear didn't really show up much during _Disney_ flicks, anyways.

Sipping his drink, Sadness returned his attention to where it should be; the screen.

 _"That's it!" A smile and an idea hit Riley's Anger at the same time. He walked casually over to the shelf of lightbulbs and carefully picked one out._ _As he trotted back to the console, Disgust asked him what that was._

 _"Oh, nothing," he said, holding it up for all to see, "just the best idea ever! All the good core memories were made in Minnesota. Ergo, we got back to Minnesota and make more!"_

 _"Waitwaitwait!" Fear sputtered out, "You're saying we run away?!"_

"Oh no!" Fear - the real one - shouted. Sadness turned around to see the purple twig come scurrying to the control panel and flick a switch. The film geek furrowed his eyebrows in concern, and Fear sighed in relief, having done her job. Only then did she notice Sadness. "Oh, hey," she said.

"Hi."

 _"Well, I wouldn't call it that," Anger replied, "I call it the 'Happy Core Memory Development Program!'"_

 _"You can't be serious!" Fear said, scandalized._

"He better not be!" grumbled Anger as she sat next to the others, a fresh bag of popcorn in hand. "That hothead has caused nothing but trouble since Joy and Sadness went missing."

 _"Hey!" Anger defended, "Our life was perfect until Mom and Dad decided to move to San Fran Stink Town!"_

 _Clink!_ a green orb appeared in response. The others only briefly looked at it, then exchanged glances, then shrugged and kept watching the movie.

 _"But it's so... drastic!"_

 _"Need I remind you how great things were there? Our room, our backyard, our friends!" Smiling with confidence, the small red emotion recalled a memory._

 _"Tripledent Gum-"  
_ _"-will make you smile!"_

 _"Did I ask for the gum commercial?!" Anger screamed, shutting the replay off. Then, sheepishly, he added, "Anyway, that's my plan."_

"Hm hm-hm hm!" Joy said, waltzing back up, humming the gum song. "I love it! I hope the soundtrack has a full version! That's great!" He hummed it and snapped his fingers in time as he walked back up to his room. Halfway to the door, though, he stopped. His eyes widened. He spun and jumped down the stairs, scurried across the floor and stood beside the others. "What are _you guys_ doing here?"

Anger held up her burnt remote.

Sadness said that his was broken.

Fear said she hadn't tried hers yet.

 _"Minessota..." Disgust said, looking as though she was seriously considering it._

 _"Wait! Hold on," Fear, ever the voice of reason, said, "Shouldn't we just sleep on this or something?"_

 _"Fine!" Anger said, voice peppered with a sarcastic laugh, "Let's sleep on it, because - hey - I'm sure jolly, fun filled times are just around the corner." That last part ended in a scowl and a clenched jaw._

"Hehahahahaah!" Joy let out his obnoxious laugh again. Wiping a tear away, he looked up as a golden orb came by, resting next to the newest green one. His smile vanished at that.

"Wh-what is it?" Fear stammered.

A pause filled the empty air as Joy thought. He opened his mouth to speak, then stopped, then started, then stopped again. This went back and forth for a while, before he closed his eyes and shook his head. After a moment's pause, he glanced down at the remote in his hands. "We should be in our rooms."

"What?!" Anger demanded, "Are you an idiot or something?!"

Joy kept his smile up and responded, "We _have_ to go back, of course. Disgust said so! We... _Disgust said so._ "

"Well, I would," Anger said, holding up her broken remote, "But-"

"Oh, you can use mine!" Fear happily chimed.

The others all looked at her at once. She shrunk back. Grumbling, Anger yanked the remote from Fear's hand. She inspected it closely. "Well," she said, "They're all the same, so I guess... I guess it'll work. But what about you?"

"I'll just stay here," Fear said quickly, "I'm too scared to be in my room now, anyways, and without my remote I'll need to be here."

Anger squinted suspiciously, then shrugged. "Whatever. If we can keep watching the movie, and if you can resist making us jump up and scream, then I'm good with it."

Fear smiled.

Everyone else went back to their proper rooms, with Anger not caring in the least, Sadness contemplating what to do with his remote, and Joy looking like his usual happy self. Actually, he was far more happy than usual, and his coworkers would have noticed the extra spring in his step and the larger smile on his face had they not been mentally elsewhere.

Between his trip to the bathroom and back, Joy had an idea - a _brilliant_ idea - one that was sure to get back at Disgust and - hopefully - show him the error of his ways.

Or at least earn a giggle from Joy.


	10. A Nightmare to Remember

_Nighttime came for Riley's mind and the Train of Thought wound to a stop, wiping the smile from Joy's face. She asked the mind workers what was going on as they hopped out of the front car, but - to her disappointment - she got, "Riley's gone to sleep; we're all on break," as a response._

"Pssh, well, then," Disgust announced, flicking a switch, "Some help _you_ guys are!" He took another sip of his soda as he sat it down and looked back to the monitor.

 _"You mean we're stuck here until morning?" Sadness asked despondently._

 _"Yeah," explained Bing Bong, "The Train of Thought doesn't run while she's asleep."_

 _"Oh, we can't wait that long!" Joy said, worry tinging her voice._

 _"How about we wake her up?" Suggested Sadness, looking off in the distance._

 _"Sadness, that's ridiculous!" Joy remarked, "How could we possibly-" she stopped as she followed Sadness's gaze. A Hollywood-esque area was up ahead, with shining lights and a busy atmosphere. A sign up at the front identified the location as 'Dream Studios.'_

 _"How about we wake her up?" Joy said without missing a beat._

"Oh, come on!" Disgust said, rolling his eyes, "Like that joke's never been done before! Sheesh." He hated having to use his remote so much, but - you know what? It just needed to be done. The Film Geek needed to remain diligent in seeing everything _wrong_ with a movie so that he could learn from others' mistakes.

 _"Great idea, Joy," Sadness quipped._

Disgust paused a moment, then cracked a faint smile at the sarcasm.

 _"Thanks! Come on!"_

* * *

 _And with that, they were off to Dream Productions, the place where Riley's mind created its nighttime tales. As the trio walked in, admiring the sheer scope of the place, Joy's eyes locked in on a famous figure. Well, famous for Riley's Mind, anyways. "Rainbow Unicorn!" she exclaimed with glee, "She's right there!"_

"Looks like a total diva!" Anger said, making sure to gently (oh so gently) press the button on her borrowed remote. It was difficult, to say the least; the darn thing was so tiny and fragile that she felt she'd break it with one wrong move. Still, it lit up red when she used it, and that was good enough for her.

* * *

 _Joy and Bing Bong, starstruck by the sight, walked right by the aptly-named Rainbow Unicorn, grinning from ear-to-ear. Sadness, on the other hand, simply stopped and talked right to her, without the slightest hint of nervousness. "My friend says you're famous," she explained. The unicorn looked down from the paper she was reading indifferently as Sadness continued, "She wants your autograph-"_

Disgust snorted in humor at that.

 _"No, no!" Joy quickly interrupted, running back into the shot, "Sadness! Don't bother Miss Unicorn, okay?"_

 _Then, turning towards the equine diva, added, "Sorry about my friend. She's from out of town, it's so embarrassing..." before quickly scurrying off with Sadness._

"Heh," he added, pressing a button again. But his smile promptly faded. _'But the writers probably couldn't leave well enough alone, right?'_ he thought _, 'They probably allowed the joke run on too long again...'_

Only a moment passed before she leaned back in and quickly said, "By the way, I loved you in 'Princess Rainbow Adventures III,' I'm a huge fan of your work! Okay, bye - I love you! Bye!'

"Hmph." _Click._

 _The celebrity rolled her eyes and went back to her reading._

Disgust rolled his eyes and went back to watching.

 _The trio approached a flashing sign warning them that they shouldn't enter, as filming was in progress. Bing Bong said his obvious, "Huh, I wonder what that means. Oh well! Let's go in!" Before holding the door open for the other two. Soon enough, all three were in._

"You've done that already!" Disgust insisted, "We get it - Bing Bong can't read! Why don't you come up with something more clever?"

* * *

 _The building was a movie set, with mind workers scurrying about right and left setting up lights, prepping cameras, and generally doing their jobs to get Riley's dream ready for the night. The director was walking in, passing out papers - presumably the script for the dream._

 _"Set up the classroom!" she announced, "The next memories are in and we've got a lot to work with, here; Riley dumped her best friend, had a miserable day at school, and quit hockey! The writers have put together a killer script!"_

"Isn't it cool?" Joy asked.

"No!" Fear trembled, "It's terrifying!"

Joy had snuck back out of his room, in accordance with his plan. He didn't need to worry about Fear; by keeping her focused on just how accurate things were, and - thereby - too scared to press any buttons, his presence in spite of Disgust's orders became the least of Fear's concerns. Besides, she'd look like a hypocrite if she called him out on it.

* * *

 _In Riley's HQ, Fear was alone, griping to himself about having to do dream duty as he pulled up a chair and sat at the console. He moodily sipped his tea as he awaited the start of the dream._

"Oh, poor guy..." Sadness moaned, pressing his remote... but it didn't click. He was tempted to try again, but he didn't. _'After all,'_ he thought, _'What's the point? If I get it to work, we'll feel sad a the wrong time, and if I don't, we'll never feel sad enough!.'_ He sighed in despondence, then took another scoop of some ice cream he'd procured.

* * *

 _Back on set, Joy and Sadness were debating how best to wake Riley up. While Sadness was all for scaring her awake, Joy was utterly against it. "She's been through enough as it is," Joy explained, "We'll make her so happy that she'll wake up with excitement! We'll excite her awake!"_

"You're stupid," Disgust muttered.

 _Sadness wasn't buying it. "But that's never happened before..." she said._

"Exactly!" he said, gesturing with both hands at the screen, "Listen, please! For crying out loud, _listen_ to Sadness!" One Joy was enough to put up with on a day to day basis, but _two?_ Disgust groaned at the thought. _'It's okay,'_ he told himself, _'This isn't Peter Jackson we're talking about here; we've only got, what? An hour, tops. It'll all be over soon, then you can leave this obnoxiously happy glowstick behind.'_

 _Joy wasn't listening. Instead, she was browsing through the props, trying to find anything to help her in her new goal. "Ooh!" she said, pulling out a two-piece dog costume, "Riley loves dogs! Here, put this on!"_

 _"I don't think this will work," Sadness insisted._

"You're right..." Disgust said to himself in a singsong voice, tinkering with the straw on his soda cup.

 _Again, Joy didn't pay any attention to her friend's negativity as she went over to the pink elephant. "Bing Bong," she said as she passed the bag containing the core memories to him, "I need you to look after this; don't let anything happen to them!"_

 _Bing Bong smiled and nodded. "You've got it, Joy! You can count on me."_

"Okay," Disgust announced, "I'm calling it _right now;_ either _he's_ a villain or something's gonna happen to that bag and he's gonna let everyone down."

* * *

 _Just then, the mind workers commenced filming as the directorshoed out the makeup department and had the cameraman slide the RDF (or "Reality Distortion Filter") onto the lens, converting the scene from a movie set to the actual inside of Riley's classroom, complete with her classmates and teacher. "We are on in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"_

 _A harp was strummed, and the dream began._

Fear whimpered. "It's too accurate! They're... they... Ahh!" she ducked back under the table, adding to her network of notes and drawings. Joy took this as his chance; he quickly darted over to the latest green memory orb. He shook his head in disapproval.

"Disgust," he said to nobody in particular, "You're gonna make us look like jerks with all this nitpicking you're doing. Oh well, though; that's another one for the pile!" He quickly scurried to the back of the room, around a bend. There was an elevator's door. Humming to himself, he pressed a button and it opened. He yelped and hissed as a few green orbs rolled out. Quickly as he could, Joy shoved them back into the growing mountain, then slammed the elevator button. Groaning in pain, the doors slid closed, barely fitting all the extra mass and weight inside the tiny space. Joy held his hands in front, as if that would keep it all in place. "Okay," he said to himself, "Alright, cool." He sighed with relief, then ran back to the console. Fear hadn't even noticed his absence, which was just fine by Joy's watch.

* * *

 _If there was one thing that was apparent from the get-go, it was that the filter could only do so much. Case in point: Riley's Teacher's actress was absolutely wooden and rigid, a fact that wasn't lost to Fear up in HQ. He was the epitome of disinterest, stirring his tea and muttering to himself, "Man, she is one bad actress."_

"You're telling me," Disgust said in agreement.

 _"Riley, introduce yourself to the class," Said the teacher._

 _A short, pudgy mindworker with a goatee and cap lazily read from a script into a megaphone, "My name is Riley Andersen, I'm from Minnesota, and now I live here."_

 _"Look! Ew!" one of the classmates said, "Her teeth are falling out!" T_ _his was accompanied by a_ mindworker _taking handfuls of teeth from a bucket and dropping them in front of the camera._

Disgust winced. "Nasty!" he exclaimed, gagging. He pressed a button. In HQ, a mixed orb of green and blue came rolling in (Sadness's remote decided it felt like working at that moment, and the Film Geek shuddered in pain at the thought of teeth falling out).

 _Fear wasn't impressed. "Teeth falling out," he griped, "Never seen that one..." he took another gulp of his tea before adding, "Let me guess; we don't have pants on."_

Disgust picked up on Fear's familiar attitude, then mused to himself, "I know how you feel."

 _His guess was entirely correct - a student pointed out the situation, and Riley covered herself quickly in embarrassment. "Called it!" Fear announced._

"Hah!" Disgust half-chuckled, "Someone after my own heart; I salute you, fellow critic!"

* * *

"Ugh, again?!" Joy asked, consternated, "Great!" He was looking over at his perfectly ruined memory; Disgust had pressed his remote at the same time that Joy pressed his, and a gold-and-green orb was the result. He wasn't one to feel disgusted frequently (obviously), but _that_ made his gut churn. He'd pressed the remote after seeing how similar Fear was to the Film Geek at the moment, but immediately regretted it; to say that was a _happy_ memory was to say that the Film Geek _enjoyed_ being disgusted by the movie, and... and... well, that was just ridiculous!

Joy made a move to go and remove that eyesore from his sight, but quickly sat back down as Fear (the Film Geek's Fear, that is) climbed back into her chair, a fresh notebook in hand. From her insane mutterings and mumblings, Joy thought she wouldn't be paying any attention to him, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

* * *

 _"Alright, Sadness," Joy was saying as they finished putting on the suit, "Ready to go?"_

 _"Joy, I don't think this is gonna work," she said, still trying to convince her golden coworker of the fact, "But if we scared her awake-"_

 _Joy interrupted, "Let's go!" and the two promptly lept into the camera's field-of-view, dancing around. "Woohoo!" Joy said, throwing her all into it, barking and yelping all around the classroom set._

"You are _really_ getting on my nerves, you little headache of a sunspot!" Anger spat aloud, squeezing her stress doll again (she'd gotten it back out, realizing how aggrivating Joy was becoming; between Disgust and Anger, the Film Geek was positively _irked_ by the fuzzball).

* * *

 _Confused, the director asked one of her assistants, "Who is that?"_

 _Up in HQ, all fear was seeing was a dog jumping around the class. "Uh..." he said, perplexed, and - for the first time since the dream began - actively interested, "What's going on?"_

 _"Who wants to party?!" Joy announced from within the dog suit._

Through clenched teeth and wincing eyes, Disgust pressed the button again.

 _Then, to Bing-Bong, she whispered, "Psst! You're on!"_

 _The imaginary friend promptly released a bag of balloons, which rained down on the area as a festive background piece unfolded._

And again.

 _"Wooh! Yeah!" Joy said over-enthusiastically, "Let's party! Let's dance! Woohoo!"_

And again and agian and again! Each time, the Film Geek clenched his fists tighter and tighter, visibly annoyed by Riley's Joy. Yes, she was bubbly. Yes, she was energetic. Yes, she was _the living, breathing personification of happiness._ ' _The moviemakers did a wonderful job.'_ thought the Film Geek _, "I believe that - if Joy were a walking, talking person, that is what he or she would act like.'_

It didn't change how obnoxious he found her. In fact, that probably _explained_ his aggrivation.

* * *

 _"Hey..." Fear said, brightening up, "A party!"_

 _"Joy!" Sadness insisted, "This isn't working!" But Joy, too absorbed in her plan, took no notice of Sadness, nor of the ripping sound emanating from the dog suit. Then, of course, it all fell apart at once; Bing Bong knocked over a light, Joy jerked forward, and the dog suit ripped in half._

Sadness took only a moment to process it, then he started laughing.

 _Up in HQ, Fear was struck by the sight of a perfectly bisected dog, with horrifying lighting illuminating the scene. The dog angrily began chasing its own lower half as Fear trembled, eyes wide. His hands were fumbling for the controls. He began muttering to himself that "It's just a dream... It's just a dream..."_

He felt it shake his body; his big, bellowing guffaw made him fall over onto the floor, still shaking with bursts of air. Tears streamed down his cheeks, but not tears of depression - tears of _hilarity._ Sadness could almost picture _'Dark Humor'_ Island shaking in tune to his laughter. Yet, after all that - after finding out that he'd accidentally put his _full weight_ on the controller when he landed on it, even - all the Film Geek did was snigger in response. With a sigh again, unwittingly channeling Eeyore, Sadness mumbled, "The sensitivity settings will _never_ work on this thing, will they?"

* * *

 _Back on the film set, the director finally understood what was happening. "They're trying to wake her up!" she said, "Call security!"_

 _The dream only escalated from there. Bing Bong hopped in. "Hi Riley!" he declared, "It's me!" and then promptly began dancing in the center of the screen, with the dog's two halves chasing themselves around him._

 _"Bing-Bong?" Fear, now more confused than scared, said._

Not laughing, not chuckling, but definitely smiling, the Film Geek's disgust was loving this scene now; Fear's quipping, the madness up on screen, and the way that everything was falling apart for Riley's Joy all added up to a hilarious combination... in his opinion, at least. And - again - his opinion was the Film Geek's. He pressed a button.

 _Sadness and Joy finally ran off camera as Joy yanked off the dog's head from her suit. Her face was stern. "Stop it, Sadness!" she said, "You're ruining this dream; you're scaring her!"_

 _"Look, it's working!" Her blue peer replied, gesturing up at Riley's "awake" meter. Sure enough, the small arrow was gradually turning more towards the "awake" side of things than the "asleep" side._

 _"Oh..." Joy said, getting the idea._

If Disgust didn't have sound proofing in his room, he would have been startled by hearing Anger yell, " _Finally! Took you long enough to get it, you tinker bell!"_

 _Unfortunately, security had arrived. "They are not part of this dream!" the director quickly said, "Get them!" The officers saluted and ran off to capture Bing-Bong._

 _"Stop right there!" they said, seizing him._

 _Reacting to the emergency, the director told the cameraman to pan away. He did. Right face-to-face with Rainbow Unicorn, who was passing by with a plateful of muffins. Realizing she was on camera, the star pulled off her best smile._

 _Fear stared for a moment in utter confusion before shouting, "Boo! Pick a plotline!"_

At that, Disgust laughed. He couldn't help but relate to Riley's Fear. "Amen!" he said, throwing the purple emotion a one-sided high five. _'It's nice to see I'm not the_ only _one who cares about quality!'_

* * *

 _The Film Geek became curious as to where Bing Bong was being taken. Joy and Sadness scurried out the door after him, soon seeing him far down a cliffside, being thrown through two giant, ominous doors._

 _"Oh no!" Joy exclaimed, "The Core Memories!"_

"What about Bing-Bong?" the Film Geek's Sadness mumbled.

 _Joy and Sadness quickly stepped down the cliffside, quietly trying to avoid being noticed by the security guards below. Not that it would matter; they were currently too busy debating whose hat was whose._

 _"No, that's my hat," one said._

 _"How can you tell?"_

 _"Because I wrote that on it, see?" he took it off and read, "My hat."_

 _"Hey - that's what I wrote on my hat!"_

* * *

Joy sputtered and laughed and guzzled his drink.

 _Too distraught over their hat situation, the guards failed to notice Joy and Sadness sneak up behind to the giant doors that led below. Deliberately, the small blue emotion gave the doors a big shake, startling Joy and the guards both._

"Huh?" the real Joy asked.

 _"Oh," feigned Sadness, "You caught us."_

 _One cut later, Joy and Sadness were shoved into the Subconscious, with a stern, "No escaping!" from the guards._

Joy snorted and giggled again.

 _"What is this place?" his on-screen counterpart asked._

 _"The Subconscious," Sadness explained as they walked, "It's where they keep all of Riley's darkest fears..." She stopped long enough to gasp at the apparently gruesome sight in front of her. "Broccoli!"_

"What?" Fear demanded, sitting up and staring at the screen. She did a double take. "Oh, please!" she said, "How's that scary?"

"Uh... well, it's just a little kid, remember?" Joy replied, too concerned about Fear's sudden awareness of her surroundings (and - potentially - Joy's ignoring of Disgusts's plan) to care about yet another green ball of cynicism clinking up against the other memories.

"So? We weren't scared of dumb things like _food_ when we were eleven!"

"But-"

 _Creeeak! A menacing doorway opened and hellishly red steps stretched down into an abyss off to the side. "The stairs to the basement!" Sadness whimpered._

Unaware of it, every emotion collectively shuddered at the sight, though - again - a green memory orb showed up the second "grandma's vacuum cleaner" drove by, terrifying the two characters yet again. Joy was too focused on getting Fear distracted again to detect it.

 _Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Attempting to sneak around and locate Bing Bong was hard enough, but the noise Sadness was making didn't help. Joy reached a breaking point and sharply asked Sadness to walk quieter._

 _"I'm trying..." Sadness asserted. Joy stopped her suddenly. Bending down, she picked up one item of many that was causing the noise._

 _"A candy wrapper?" Joy asked, noticing the trail that led across the ground and out to a hidden corner of the Subconscious. The two emotions wasted no time in running down the trail and coming across a sorry sight. "Bing Bong!" Joy exclaimed happily, not seeming to notice the giant clown he was on top of, nor the balloon cage that held him._

Faintly, you could hear Disgust's snigger mix in with Sadness's chuckle.

 _"Joy?" Bing Bong asked hopefully. Joy made a move to respond, but the imaginary friend quickly added, "Shh!" With that, the camera panned over to the sleeping clown, finally focused on his face._

 _Joy froze solid, petrified by fear. "It's Jangles!" she said in a trembling voice._

"Uh... he doesn't... he doesn't look scary. At all." Fear commented.

Joy smiled, finally realizing what he could do to distract Fear. "Yeah, but..." with a flick of his hand, he recalled a specific memory - one of the earliest nightmares they'd ever had; Ronald McDonald laughing like the Joker, crawling after them down an endless plastic tunnel.

Fear flinched, quickly shoved the memory away, and then her eyes trailed off the screen as she remembered the awful dream. It worked like a charm. Well, for all of half a second...

 _Snoring, Jangles muttered, "Who's the birthday girl?" over and over in his sleep._

Caught off guard, it took a second for Fear's chuckle to catch up with her smile. The sight was just so ridiculous! It wasn't scary in the least!

Joy slapped himself in the face.

* * *

 _Stealthily, Joy crept up the belly of the monstrous clown - in a scene that vaguely reminded the Film Geek of Bilbo Baggins trying to stay silent in Smaug's lair. Eventually, Joy made it to the cage. "Do you have the Core Memories?" she asked._

"But what about _Bing-Bong?_ " Sadness insisted, "You're not gonna just take the memories and scram, are you? Because... because..."

* * *

"Man, that would be sweet if Disney had the guts to pull a stunt that," Disgust concluded, his thoughts following Sadness's right up to that point. In a flash of a second, he could see it: Joy leaving Bing Bong behind, Sadness staying and helping, and Joy getting more and more unhinged as the film progressed, ending with Sadness having to yank the Core Memories away and fix them herself before Joy could damage Riley too much. A satisfied grin spread across Disgust's face at the thought of such a unique route the story could take.

And, even though Joy _did_ wind up rescuing Bing-Bong after retrieving the Core Memories, Disgust wasn't particularly disgusted by it (though he _did_ make sure to blast away on the remote when those awful balloon rubbing noises assaulted his eardrums). _'After all,'_ he conceded, _'This is a movie aimed for kids... which is a pity. So much more could be done here...'_ lost in his thoughts, he failed to realize just how low his drink was getting, and actually startled himself when it began slurping. _'Hmm,'_ he thought, then got up to go get a refill.

Just as he reached his door, however, he hesitated. He looked back at the monitor. _'I'll... I'll wait 'till this scene resolves.'_ Hand over the door handle, Disgust lingered and continued watching, patiently waiting a moment to leave so he wouldn't miss any second of the movie.

* * *

And, of course, Joy was just thankful the distraction lasted long enough for him to grab the newest green orbs and run them back to the jam-packed elevator while Fear was absorbed in the movie. Easily, steadily, she slowly cranked the _'Tension'_ meter down, glancing at the recently mapped tension-line that had read out during the scene. It only actually started to rise when Joy scrambled up the clown's side, and the Film Geek wondered with a nervous squint if Joy would wake up Jangles. It only grew from there, _especially_ when the balloons began squeaking. Teeth gritted, a mixture of annoyance and anxiety hit the Film Geek during those few seconds. Thankfully, the scene was over as soon as it began, and only a few green, purple, and green-and-purple memories were there to show for it.

It was about that time that Joy returned from his latest deposit. With a smile, he walked over to the controls. With widened eyes, he stopped. With a groan, he noticed the latest few memories for him to collect; three snotty green spheres (though the purple-and-green one slipped under his radar). With a shrug, he picked them up and scurried back to the elevator (now twice over its maximum weight limit), heart beating with nervousness. He returned just in time for Fear to let go of the tension-meter.

"Whew," she said, "That was intense!"

"Mmhmm," Joy agreed, "Yep, sure was. My eyes were glued to the screen the whole time!"

"So, what do you think's gonna happen now?"

 _"Let's get out of here and to the Train!" Bing Bong whispered. The group began walking away, but Joy suddenly stopped._

 _"We still have to wake up Riley!" she remembered aloud. She and Sadness exchanged looks, then both noticed the monstrous clown still asleep._

 _"Oh no..." Bing Bong whimpered, following their train of thought._

 _Joy gulped and walked over to the clown's face. Mustering up all the courage she could, she reached over and shoved his nose a few times. The clown's giant green eyes opened wide, and a smile grew across his face as he noticed his new cellmates. Standing up, the creature shook the entire subconscious, his goofy face the epitome of childlike curiosity. A single little tooth jutted out from behind his closed lips._

"Aww..." Joy said, unable to resist pressing a button or two, "That's not scary...that's-... that's adorable!"

* * *

Disgust was still waiting for a chance to get a refill, but Riley's Joy was about to initiate a plan, and Disgust had a feeling he'd be needed for it... at least for the start of it.

 _"Hey Sadness!" Joy stuttered out, clearly too afraid to put on a truly confident facade, "Did you hear about that p-p... party they were having?"_

 _"Ye-Y-y-Yeah, the B-b-bb-birthday party?" Sadness said, just as confident._

 _"Did you say a birthday party?!" Jangles asked._

 _"Yeah!" Joy said, stumbling with each giant step taken by the clown, "Wi-With cake and presents..."_

 _"A birthday party?! Hyehuhuhuhah!" Jangles exclaimed with a stereotypical clown laugh._

 _As the heroes ran off, leading the clown to the exit, Joy looked over at Sadness and said, "Nothing like a good scare to wake you up, right?!"_

 _'_ _Okay,'_ Disgust thought, flicking a button, _'Yes, yes, I get your plan. It was obvious. No need to repeat yourself.'_

With a slurp on his soda, he stepped out of his room and made his way down to the main area. Preoccupied by his slurping soda, he didn't even look up as he contemplated the film so far. Good news for Joy, who was frozen, trying not to laugh as Riley's Fear fainted on-screen. When Disgust rounded the corner, Joy finally allowed himself to let loose a hearty chuckle at the sight.

"Wh-What's so funny?" Fear asked, "What's so funny about fainting?"

"Oh, you wouldn't get it..." Joy said, wiping a tear from his eye. The gesture made him notice the two green orbs finally - Fear's and Disgust's. He quickly groaned and ran over, putting one under each arm and spinning quickly around. Maybe if he'd have been less careless, he wouldn't have smacked into Disgust.


	11. Going Down?

"Joy?" Disgust asked, rubbing his head, "What the heck are you..." His voice trailed off as he noticed the dropped memory orbs. He quickly shot Joy a rebuking glare. "What's that?!"

Joy immediately jumped to his feet. "Uh... uh..." he began, trying to come up with something. He looked around. Fear's worried eyes met his. Quickly, Joy jabbed a finger at the monitor. "Hey!" he announced, "Hang on, I gotta handle this."

 _Hopping in happiness, the trio found themselves boarding the Train of Thought just in time, as Riley woke up for the start of a new day. As the machine streamed off into the air, Joy couldn't contain herself. "Guess who's heading to Headquarters?"_

 _"We are!" Sadness enthused, a rare smile crossing her mouth. Truly, spirits were high among the group._

Running over, Joy yanked a lever, and the Film geek felt his lips curve into a warm smile. Joy smiled, too.

"Ahem."

His smile vanished and he spun around, eye-to-eye with Disgust, who had just finished returning the orbs to their proper place. "You know, Joy," he said in mock confusion, "There are a _lot_ of empty slots here. What do you suppose is going on?" His cold stare met Joy.

 _While the trio in the Train of Thought may have been elated, the same couldn't be said for those up in HQ, as Anger and Disgust groggily made their way to the main room. Noticing Fear, curled up in a ball on the floor, Anger scowled. "He did it again!" he complained, irate. As Fear continued muttering to himself about clowns, parties, and Bing-Bong, Anger made his way over to the lightbulbs. "This is ridiculous!" he proclaimed, "We can't even get a decent night's sleep anymore! Time to take action." Reaching in, he pulled out the 'Happy Core Memory Development' lightbulb and held it up for the others to see._

"Ah!" Fear yelped, "No! Please, oh, please don't- don't do it!"

"They're gonna do it," Disgust nonchalantly responded, his eyes not breaking contact with Joy, "It makes sense for the plot, just watch."

Fear whimpered.

 _Getting a grip on himself, Fear managed to look nervously at the bulb and mutter out, "N-no... no no no no no..." the vote was tied. They looked over at Disgust, who - after the slightest of hesitations - nodded._

 _"Let's do it," she said, resigned. With that, Anger trotted right over to the console and Riley began looking up something on her computer._

 _"So..." Fear nervously ventured, "H-How are we gonna get back to Minnesota, exactly?"_

 _"Oh," said Anger with a false tone of cheer, "We'll just go down to the elephant lot and rent an elephant!"_

Disgust, still locked to Joy's gaze, flicked a switch on his remote. The film geek snickered at Riley's Anger's cynical bite. A green orb came in.

"Hey!" Joy spat, "What do you think-"

But he was interrupted. "I'm waiting," Disgust said as he tapped his foot, "Tell me where you put the other orbs."

Joy was about to say something, second-thought himself, then slammed his mouth shut and forced a scowl onto his face. His green coworker raised a single eyebrow, as if to say, "Is that the best you've got? You're really bad at this."

 _"Ooh," Fear nodded, seeming to like the idea, "That sounds good!"_

 _"We're taking the bus, nitwit!" Anger flared through gritted teeth, causing his purple coworker to flinch in response, continuing to guide Riley's actions. As she scrolled down the webpage, determination in her eyes, she noted something. "There's a bus leaving tomorrow," Anger said, "perfect."_

 _"How are we gonna get money to pay for it?" Disgust asked._

 _"Mom's purse," Anger nonchalantly explained._

"Aaaaagh!" A roar came from Anger's room, yanking everyone's attention. Smoke billowed out. Disgust slapped himself in the face as his small red coworker coughed and hacked her way out of her room, still clutching the remote. "It's not broken!" she announced, holding the untouched remote up in the air, "I just want you all to know that I did _not_ melt Disgust's precious little remote!" That's when she noticed Disgust and Joy standing down beside the console.

Sadness peeked his head out of his room. "What's..." he began, but then noticed the tension in HQ. "Oh," he sheepishly muttered before yanking his head back in and closing the door.

 _Disgust let out a scandalized gasp at Anger's suggestion. "You wouldn't!"_

 _"Oh, but I would. Now, let's see... where did we see it last?" He pressed a recall button._

 _"Tripledent Gum-"_

 _Before the song could continue, Anger's eyes widened and his pupils shrunk as he hollered, "Not now!"_

"Heh," Joy and Disgust said instinctively, each pressing a button at the same time. The coincidence only reminded them of each other's presence, and they locked figurative swords again.

"What?" Joy asked.

 _The song went right away, seemingly scared of Anger's outburst. After a moment to recompose himself, the small red cube concluded, "It's downstairs somewhere. Mom and Dad got us into this mess, they can pay to get us out of it."  
_

"Nothing!" Disgust insisted, "What's your problem?"

"Nothing!" Joy replied as he stood tall, "What's yours? What's your deal? Why can't you just sit back and enjoy-"

 _Blissfully unaware of the disaster that was cooking, Bing Bong was giving an impromptu 'tour' of Riley's mind to Joy and Sadness. "This is really a great view," he said happily, pointing things out as they passed by off-screen, "You can see everything from this high up - look, there's 'Reasoning,' there's 'Deja Vu,' there's 'The English Language,' there's 'Deja Vu,' there's 'Critical Thinking,' there's 'Deja Vu'...," then something caught his eye in the train cart, something he probably should've noticed already but somehow had failed to up until now. "Hey, look! Memories!" He happily went over to investigate, leaving Joy a moment to talk to Sadness._

Disgust had been gradually tightening his grip on the remote during the entire playout, and - as a result - the Film Geek felt more and more annoyance the more Bing Bong talked. "Well," Disgust said with a mockingly sweet tone, "Since you asked: _that_ is the reason!" A firm green finger jutted at the screen. "I can't stand idiotic, childish jokes that repeat themselves, I can't stand obnoxiously happy, bright, joyful things (both, might I add, are items this film's filled to the brim with), and I most definitely can't stand that _irritating_ pink moron! Hence, the 'overabundance' of green memory orbs. Now, _tell me why you stole them!_ "

Joy scoffed, "Well, I never-"

"Hey, that's right..." Disgust said, "You've _never_ bothered asking me. Oh, sure, you always demand an explanation for my annoyances, but you never ask me _why_ we should feel annoyed. You always just _assumed_ I was being arbitrary, spiteful for the sake of spite. And now you've taken it too far."

 _"Hey..." she said with a warm, genuine smile, "That was smart thinking back there, waking Riley up. Not so bad."_

 _"Really?" Sadness asked, seeming to scarcely believe what she was hearing._

 _"Yep," Joy affirmed, walking to the train car's center. Sadness followed, grinning at the compliment._

Still glaring, Joy reflexively slapped Disgust's reaching hand away and tapped a button on the control panel. _'Aww...'_ thought the Film Geek to himself, warmly glowing at the sight of Riley's two emotions beginning to get along like the friends they should be.

 _They sat quietly in the train for a moment or two before Bing Bong asked,"Hey, is this Riley?" in his hands was a golden memory, one of Riley being lifted high in the air by her hockey teammates. But that wasn't what caught the imaginary friend's attention. "She's so big now! How will she fit in the rocket? We gotta get to the moon_ somehow _..._ "

Now it was Disgust's turn to scoff. He shoved Joy back and pressed a button. The Film Geek rolled his eyes at what he felt was utter stupidity on Bing Bong's part. He wasn't sure why, but Bing Bong _really_ got under his skin.

 _While Bing Bong pondered his minor conundrum, Joy was taken with nostalgia. "Oh wow! That was a great one! Remember?" she looked over at Sadness, showing her the orb, "The hockey team showed up and Mom and Dad did, too... this is one of my favorites!"_

"Oh, is that how it is?" Joy snarled.

"You started it, Tinker Bell!"

"Hey! Don't you call me-"

"Guys!" Fear ran up, standing between them, "We-we- w..." she paused and noticed that Disgust and Joy weren't even registering her presence. They weren't looking at her, they were looking _through_ her and at eachother. She felt like she was between two ends of a tightly wound guitar string. Nervously, she chuckled. "I'll - I'm gonna... Sadness!" She darted off and jumped into Sadness's room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Joy and Fear began circling the room's center, their heads unmoving as each laser-focused on his "enemy." Anger fidgeted, trying hard to find a non-angry solution to diffuse the situation. Unfortunately, no ideas were coming.

* * *

 _"Mine, too," Sadness nodded with her always faint voice and smile._

 _Joy looked taken aback, but quickly grinned, "There!" she said with encouragement, "'Atta girl! Now you're getting it!" Her happiness soon faded, though; rather than enjoying the golden gleam of the memory, Sadness pointed out probably one of the most depressing things Riley had experienced._

 _"That was the day we missed the winningshot, and cost the Prarie Dogs the playoffs." Unaware of the shock on Joy's face, Sadness continued on happily, "We felt so bad, we just went off and cried..." That's when she looked up and noticed. "Sorry," she meekly mumbled, "I got sad again, didn't I?"_

Curled up on Sadness's bed, hidden under blankets, Fear peeked out and watched as the blue emotion, seated comfortably on his bean-bag chair, pressed a button and the Film Geek felt a twinge of sympathy for Riley's Sadness. "So," the _real_ Sadness said, "They're basically about to fight?"

"Y-Y-Yeah! Do something! Calm them down!"

"Right... I don't think I can."

"What?!"

The emotion sighed heavily. "Let them work it out on their own. Trust me, they really need to."

"But- but- but-"

"Look," Sadness said, rubbing his head, "Are they forgetting to react to the movie?"

"What? Well... well, no, but-"

"Then they're still functioning, and they're still doing their jobs."

Fear just trembled under the blankets.

Sadness gave up explaining the situation. He wished he could help. He wished he could comfort Fear and let her feel better or go out and diffuse the situation. But the fact remained; nobody felt sad. Fear was afraid, Joy was angry, and Disgust was equally as mad. Sadness couldn't do a single thing. So, in his opinion, the best solution was to not interfere and risk complicating things further.

 _Always one to put a positive spin on things, her golden friend simply said, "Eh, we'll just work on that when we're back in HQ!"_

 _And, on that note, the scene changed again._

 _Hesitantly, quietly, Riley snuck downstairs in her dimly lit house. There it was; Mom's purse, on the dining room table, illuminated by the kitchen's sparse light. While this made things easier, it also made it more difficult - Riley's mom was in the kitchen, her back turned to the purse and too wrapped up with a phone call to notice her little girl walk up to the leather bag._

Fear sat bolt-upright, mouth open. "Oh, she can't- she- she-"

 _Quietly - oh so quietly - Riley flipped it open and took out the credit card._

"Ah!" Without thinking, the purple emotion lept from the bed, knocking Sadness over and grabbing his remote, slamming on a button. The Film Geek tensed up. "What?" Fear asked, looking at the remote. "What? No! I told you to scream!"

"Oh," Sadness said, "The sensitivity's-"

 _That was when her mom turned around._

"Aaaaaah!" Fear shouted. The Film Geek felt his eyes automatically widen in heart-pounding tension. His nostrils sucked in a sudden breath of air. His 'underwhelmed' (in Fear's eyes) reaction only made the purple twig scream louder and panic more, all while Sadness tried to explain how dull the remote was. His words fell on deaf, or - rather - overwhelmed ears.

 _For a stunned moment, it looked like she would be caught. Her mom's eyes were down, however, and she didn't see Riley quickly dart away. By the time she looked up again, Riley had left, leaving not a trace behind, and her mom returned to the phone call._

"Oh, whew," Fear said, handing the remote back to Sadness (not even registering his tumbled-over state). Without a word, the blue emotion grabbed a second chair and sat down in it, adjusted his sweater, and resumed watching the film.

 _She might not have made a noise on the outside, but inside her head, an earthquake violently shook 'Honesty Island.' Before anyone could react, the floating landmass crumbled, toppled, and careened into the Train of Thought, sending it falling down to the Memory Dump._

"Nooo!" Fear panicked. She lunged over for the remote, hitting Sadness again and knocking him over once more. Frantic purple fingers jabbed a variety of warning buttons, and their host felt his heart begin pounding again. "They're gonna die! They-" she looked at Sadness and yelled, "They're gonna _be gone forever!_ "

"I'm right here," came the blue emotion's barely-audible mumble.

 _If it weren't for the cliffside rushing up to slam into it, all might have been lost. As it was, the cliff caught the derailed train, giving the nearby mindworkers just enough time to scramble over and help pull everyone out. Then, creaking, groaning in protest, the Train of Thought plunged into the darkness with a thunderous crash._

"Oh thank goodness," Fear sighed as she melted down into the beanbag chair. Sadness was about to ask for his remote back, but then realized what was happening on screen and thought better of it. He'd probably not be needed anytime soon.

 _"We lost another one?" Joy said, on the brink of a total meltdown as the stress sunk into her, "What is happening?" She looked scared._

 _"Haven't you heard?" a mindworker said, surprised that Joy seemed so out of the loop, "Riley's running away."_

 _The news slammed into Joy like a car. Empty quiet settled on the group. Joy was at a loss for words._

 _Up in HQ, Fear wasn't quite at a loss for words. "Hang on, guys!" he finally got up the guts to say, letting Riley pause in the middle of packing to think about what she was doing. "Are we really sure about this? This is serious!"_

"Yes!" Fear said, "Exactly! Stop it! Just- Just don't run-"

 _Anger wasted no time debating as he shoved Fear aside. "We've got no core memories! You want to make Riley happy? Let's go back to Minnesota and make more." With a scowl of determination, Riley finished packing her backpack and moved confidently downstairs._

"Noooo..." She groaned, gripping the remote tightly. Sadness reached over quickly, trying to pry her fingers off.

"Hey! Not so tight!"

The _clink_ of a blue-and-purple memory orb could faintly be heard.

 _Inside, Sadness was the first to speak up. "Joy," she said quickly, motioning off in the distance, "If we hurry, we can still stop her!"_ _Joy followed her shorter friend's gaze, to..._

 _"Family Island!" the golden emotion exclaimed. Resolute, she added, "Let's go!" before running off, leaving Bing Bong and Sadness to keep pace as they ran towards the last thing that made Riley Riley. However, the closer they got to the island, the more Riley became detached from her parents, and by the time the trio had made it to their destination, said destination was undergoing too-familiar spasms._

 _"Joy!" Sadness said, grabbing her and forcing her to stop, "It's too dangerous! We won't make it in time!" As if to enforce Sadness's point, the Island let loose giant boulders of rubble as it continued its death throes._

 _Eyes wide, Joy didn't seem to register what was happening before them. "But that's our only way back!"_

"I-... I..." Fear stuttered, at a loss for words as the situation escalated. She still had the remote seized in her hands, slamming a button tightly. There would be no relenting while the suspense was still running, so Sadness made the most of it as he reached over and tapped a button himself. _Clink_. Another mixed memory.

 _Another violent tremble shook the area, knocking off a chunk of land nearby. Its rip - in turn - tore open a shelf of memories, exposing a recall tube beneath. "A recall tube!" Joy exclaimed, "We can get recalled!" Said tube came loose. Now open, the suction was gone and the tube was useless... but not to Joy. To Joy, it was a way back. She didn't wait. She ran. She ran right up to the tube, Sadness shortly behind her._

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Fear shouted, jumping from her chair and practically slamming her face against the monitor, "Just get in!" It may have been him overreacting, but Sadness could've sworn he felt a crack in Fear's voice, a twinge of gloom.

 _Riley had just reached the front door, when her Mom called to her. "Hey, see you later sweetie!" she said._

 _"Have a good day at school, monkey!" Her Dad called out as he moved a box around. Riley worriedly glanced over, but steeled herself and pressed on with her decision, determined to go to the only place she'd ever considered home._

"I... I can't..." Fear trembled, tears filling her eyes. Sadness stepped over. "There, there," he said, patting her back, "It's just a movie, okay?"

"I know, but... but they're gonna die!"

And so Fear became a fountain of salty tears, leaning on Sadness's shoulder. "Here's the tissues," he said, handing her the box. They've done this routine before. Frequently, in fact.

* * *

Anger had resolved to do the one thing she knew how to do: her job. Ignoring the escalating barbs and words from Joy and Disgust, she'd stepped up to the console to ensure that everything she needed to do was covered. And, hopefully, something would enrage them enough for the two bickering fools to come to a ceasefire. But they weren't. They kept going. And Anger's anger only grew on the inside.

"You're just a little green punk who hates everything that's nice!"

Anger gritted her teeth.

 _Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong arrived at the tube as Riley's mind protested against her running away. In one swift motion, Joy stepped up to jump in the tube, with Sadness scrambling behind her. At once, a sharp ringing emitted; the cores were turning blue again._

"Let me know when you come up with good insults, glowstick. Now, for the last time: where are the orbs?! Or will I have to start seeing fluffy white bunnies and pretty flowers everywhere before you let me in on the secret?"

Anger breathed in, and breathed out, trying to calm herself as a whisp of smoke trailed up from her head.

 _"Sadness!" Joy exclaimed, pushing her away again. Quickly taking a core memory out and showing her, she added, "You're hurting Riley!"_

Now fully attentive to the screen, Anger muttered to herself, "Oh, _seriously?_ "

"What?!" Disgust asked, then noticed the screen as well. "Seriously?!" he asked.

 _"No!" Sadness whined. She shrunk back from the orbs, fearing the worst. "No, no no not again!"_

 _An awful truth seemed to be piecing itself together in Joy's head. "If you get in here," she said, "You'll- they'll stay sad!" A wounded expression came from Sadness, and Joy glanced back and forth, her eyes bouncing between HQ, the memories, Sadness, the tube, and Family Island, as Riley's mind fought a losing battle. Painfully, Joy forced herself to say, "I'm sorry, but Riley needs to be happy!"_

"You idiot!" Anger yelled. Bright flames shot up into the air. The heat smacked Disgust and Joy, and they shielded their faces from the miniature supernova of fire. They jolted back from the intense heat, their personal qualms briefly forgot in the moment - just like their environment was completely forgotten. They backed away, unaware of how close they were to the nearby elevator.

Anger continued erupting.

 _"Joy?" Sadness said. If she planned on doing anything, she wouldn't have had time. Joy was too quick; she lept into the tube and slammed it shut. The vacuum was back, and with it a force that shot Joy straight up through to Headquarters. As she rocketed up into the air, she cast a regretful gaze down at her small blue friend._

"You could've waited then let Sadness get in after you! Why not _that, you selfish little brat?!"_ Unreasonable? Perhaps. True to herself? Without a doubt. Startling? Most of all. Disgust jumped back at the new, sudden eruption. Joy had followed suit. They both landed in the already weighed-down elevator, whose straining sides were bursting at the seams with green orbs.

It was about that time that Anger looked back and noticed. She went from enraged to scared.

 _The ground shook again._

Joy poked his head out of the pile.

 _The tube broke open._

Disgust did the same.

 _Joy fell._

The elevator creaked only once more before its weight got the best of it, and it began plummeting down. The cries of the two emotions echoed up behind them, an invisible trail of terror.

 _As the bright emotion came screaming down, Bing Bong lunged out to catch her while Sadness stood petrified with horror. Nothing could be done as the ground crumbled under Bing-Bong's feet. He fell, and Joy came right with him, down into the black emptiness of the Memory Dump. Sadness could do nothing but look on, helpless. "Joy..." she said through a broken, strained voice. She was alone, like Riley, who vanished into the all-encompassing fog of San Fransisco's morning air._

The Film Geek sat alone in the theater, numb with shock at the sight.

His Anger felt quite the same.


	12. Looking Up

_Crashing into the bottom of the pit, Joy found herself sliding down a mound of discarded orbs. She quickly looked up, heart still racing and panicking. The memory dump. She was in the memory dump, and an endless sea of dead spheres surrounded her. She wasted no time in jumping up and trying to get out._

The elevator slowed to a stop, its emergency brakes working, successfully sparing its unwanted passengers a sudden slam into the ground. Not that that did much to improve moods. The Film Geek's Disgust shoved several of the green memory orbs off to the side, catching his breath after that nasty fall. His peer, Joy, groaned as he sat up, furiously rubbing the back of his head. Disgust shoved roughly past him, pressing a button on the elevator's console. An intercom crackled to life.

"Yes?" came the bored drone of a mindworker.

"It's Disgust," responded the green emotion, "Joy and I are in the elevator, stuck on the..." he glanced at the meter, "stuck on the twenty-second floor. The elevator's busted. Emergency brakes are working fine, though, and I think we can probably get out if we use the emergency hole."

"Oh, okay," the voice said, a little more attentive, "Hang on..." The sound of a keyboard clacking punctured the air. Disgust shot a glare at Joy, "By the way," he added as he pressed the intercom button once more, "There are about thirty memory orbs stuck in here." Joy clenched his jaw at the obvious jab.

"...what?" the mindworker asked, now fully confused.

Disgust sighed in - well - disgust, and replied, "You heard me, and it's a long story. Just get a crew down here when you can. We're needed in HQ, pronto..." He contemplated something, then added, "And I have a message for HQ."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Tell them to keep doing their jobs, we're fine."

"Got it... boy, the things you guys get into..." A burst of static signaled the end of the conversation, leaving Joy and Disgust to fume at each other in silence.

* * *

"...so we should just keep going?" Sadness asked. A mindworker had contacted them via intercom. Sadness was just on the brink of tears, Fear was practically comatose, and Anger was - for once - speechless, but relief washed over them all at the news that Joy and Disgust were alright. Sure, it would probably be a while before they made it to the control room again, but at least they were unharmed (for now, anyways; Sadness shuddered at the thought of those two being stuck in an enclosed space together).

"Yeah," the mindworker on the other end replied, "That's what I was told to tell you - they're fine, and keep doing your jobs."

"Alright, thanks."

"Yeah, no problem." Static.

Sadness looked at the others.

"Well, now what?" Fear asked.

"What do you think?" Anger said, "We watch the movie, that's what!"

"Well, I-I-I know, but what about Joy and Disgust? I had... I had no clue Joy was up to that all along... and- and-"

"Hey," Sadness said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Calm down - they'll be fine. Okay?"

"O-Okay... Okay." Fear nodded.

"Now, let's get back to the film, alright?"

Everyone else agreed, and returned their eyes to the screen.

 _Bing Bong, too, was lying in the dump, a few yards away. Sluggishly groaning, the pink elephant craned his head up and looked around at the awful sight. That's when he noticed a gentle breeze nearby, accompanied by a glow. Three small memory orbs lit up right beside him, then vanished to dust and went away. Gone forever._

Fear gulped nervously, but Sadness simply whistled in appreciation. "Man, the memory dump look so _pretty!"_ he exclaimed.

 _The imaginary friend fell over suddenly. He quickly yanked his hand up and saw - to his horror - that it was transparent. He was vanishing. He was being forgotten._

Fear and Sadness gasped in unison. "Oh, wow..." Sadness mumbled. Fear whimpered and hugged her blue coworker, who kindly but firmly pushed her off of him.

 _"Joy?" he called out, standing up and running over to the glowing figure as she tried in vain to climb up out of the chasm that had swallowed them. He saw the uselessness of it all and tried to talk her out of it. "Joy, what are you doing? Will you stop?" Either she didn't hear him, or she chose to ignore him, because she kept trying and trying to make it out. "Don't you get it, Joy?" he finally shouted, causing her to slow down and stop, "We're stuck down here! We're forgotten."_

"Woah!" Anger shouted, "Wait! Wait! Wait wait wait a minute! Time out!" She looked over at Sadness and Fear, who seemed to be mentally coaxing her to go on. "Well, come on! It's obvious right?" Anger said. They shook their heads. Anger sighed in frustration before saying, "Why can't they go to the _center_ of the dump, where the base of the tower is?"

"I-... huh," Sadness said, "You know what? Good point. Isn't there an emergency entrance?"

"W-W-Well," Fear said, "To be fair, we don't actually know if there _is_ an emergency door at the bottom. I-I mean, has anyone been down that far in the tower?"

"Well... okay, no," Anger admitted, "But it's worth a shot, at least."

She got no argument there, but everyone kept watching the movie, not wanting to miss what was - obviously - an important part.

* * *

"You're something else, you know?" Joy said. It was the first noise in the elevator ever since the intercom. Disgust said nothing, so Joy continued. "You're a snide, condescending _jerk_. You always find things to be annoyed by - _always._ You never seem to be okay with simply _enjoying_ something... heck," he added, gesturing to the orbs piled around them, "these are all from this movie alone! Would it kill you to let us _like_ something on its own, for once? Huh?"

Disgust shrugged. "I don't know, Joy, why don't you tell me?" he asked. The gold emotion made a move to respond, but couldn't think of anything. The question was, admittedly, unexpected. Disgust knew it was, too, and he let out a sarcastic chuckle. "These," he said, gesturing to the orbs, "Are all here for a _reason_ , lightbulb."

Joy scowled, actually looking repulsed himself at the sight of all that green.

Disgust waved his hands away. "Whatever," he muttered, "You wouldn't understand." With that, he turned and used a nearby mound of orbs to climb up. Joy didn't move or offer any help as Disgust stretched and reached for the emergency exit panel. "You coming with me?" he asked, "I'm taking the stairs. Who knows how long this will be shut down? We gotta get back to HQ."

"You do," Joy said, "I don't... you don't want us to enjoy this movie, anyways."

Another cynical laugh, "You really don't get it, do you? Suit yourself." With that, Disgust reached up and finally managed to get the exit open. He threw himself up, catching the edge of the hole and dangling half-in the elevator, kicking his legs and finally getting a bearing on one of the elevator walls. Joy, arms crossed, simply watched as his green peer forced himself up and out.

* * *

 _The desolation of the place finally caught up with the yellow emotion, and for once, she couldn't see the positive side of anything there. Numb shock sunk in. A glow. A bright blue light grabbed her attention. She went over and picked up Sadness's core memory; Riley crying in class. Joy sighed bitterly. A yellow gleam faded in next to her before she could dwell longer on it. There was a small, happy memory amid the faded corpses of the others. She picked it up, her hands brushing it tenderly._

The Film Geek felt a twinge of sympathy rock his chest.

* * *

As Disgust finally made it out of the elevator, and began climbing the ladder that would lead to the stairs, something fell from his pocket. It was his small notebook, which came tumbling down and landed at Joy's feet. The gold emotion furrowed his brows, curious. He waited a moment, though, to see if Disgust would notice its absence. But the sounds of that spinach-colored feeling leaving were all that greeted his ears. So he reached over and picked it up. He hesitated only a moment, scratching some stubble on his face, before flipping it open.

 _There she was; Riley, years ago, drawing something on paper with the enthusiasm that only a child could produce. Joy couldn't help but crack a bittersweet smile. "Do you remember," she said - either to Bing Bong or herself, "how she used to stick her tongue out when she was coloring?"_

Joy found himself looking at some of Disgust's notes on the film so far.

"Joy is an annoying little brat," were the first words. He scoffed, wondering to himself if that was referring to Riley's Joy or him. Below that, though, another note was attached: "Good characterization."

Joy (the real one) blinked once. "Huh," he said, "Weird."

 _Another golden memory. Joy picked it up and gathered it in her arms as if she were holding a child. Her voice cracked as she said, "I could listen to her stories all day..."_

He flipped another page or two, to see the words "Would it have killed Bing Bong to shut up for just five seconds?" And - again - another note was below it, one that said, "Exactly how a little kid's imaginary friend would be, too."

"What the heck?" Joy asked himself, reading another note, "'Bing Bong's stupid song is both irritating and perfect'? What, are you bipolar or something, Disgust?"

 _Riley's Joy reached back and pulled another memory from her bag, where Riley's teammates were cheering and encouraging her. It joined the others in her feeble embrace. Joy held those small suns close together, up against her chest. Whatever warmth they had, it wasn't doing a thing but throwing the bitter situation into sharp contrast. Heavily breathing, fighting back tears, Joy defended her actions to the air around her, as if the emptiness itself had accused her. "I just wanted Riley to be happy..." she insisted._

Joy quickly flipped to the latest page.

"Joy, we _get it_ ," the note said, "We get that you're going to scare Riley awake using Jangles! No need to say, 'nothing like a good scare...' No need to keep hitting us over the head with your plan."

But the note right below it said, "This is turning out to be a good movie, though."

Now all Joy could do was scratch his head in confusion. _'But...'_ he thought, _'But I thought you wanted us to hate it...'_

 _The gloom swamped over her, though. Her world closed in and collapsed, and she collapsed as well. Joy cried and cried, swallowed in misery. As the teardrops fell, one landed on the memory of Riley and her team. Sniffing, Joy reached down and wiped the tear off._

There was some more chicken scratch off to the side. "Note to self: this movie is loaded with little annoying things..."

 _That's when something unexpected happened._

"...but so far, that's all I can say. I hope it stays this fantastic - it's turning out to be a wonderful flick so far."

 _As the memory reacted to Joy's motion, it rewound, but it also changed. Its shimmering golden hue went blue, and Riley's cheering team vanished, replaced instead by a sad image of her all by herself, sitting alone on a tree's branch. Joy stared at the sight in wonder, recalling what Sadness had said about that day:_

 _"It was the day the Prairie Dogs lost the big playoff game. Riley missed the winning shot. She felt awful. She wanted to quit."_

"These are all here for a reason, lightbulb," Disgust had snapped just a few minutes ago.

Joy looked around at the snot-colored orbs, and dropped down, yanking one up quickly. It was a memory of the movie: Riley's Joy declaring that "We can do this!" as she dragged Sadness around Long-Term storage.

 _Joy continued looking at the scene as it unfolded; quietly moping, Riley almost didn't notice her parents come up to her. They jumped up and joined her on the branch, putting their arms around their little girl and comforting her as best as they could._

The Film Geek's Joy looked at all the green orbs. Each one was a specific moment that made him feel disgusted, or annoyed, or irritated. There were roughly thirty in here... how many happy moments were there? Joy sat down, mentally trying to count to himself as he recalled all the times he'd had fun watching the movie so far... and found that he couldn't. It was well over thirty, though - he knew that much.

In fact, compared to all the golden orbs there probably were, Disgust had hardly pressed any buttons at all. And the memories were so short, so _fleeting_ , that they didn't really spread to much of the movie.

The Film Geek's Joy looked back down at the notebook, where the words, "This is turning out to be a good movie" were written.

Then his jaw slowly opened.

 _"Sadness..." Joy mumbled to herself. In the back of her head, realization began creeping in._

 _That's_ why Disgust was enjoying the movie.

 _The memory morphed and shifted, slowly becoming golden once more as Riley's team came onto the scene._

"If..." Joy began, puzzled expression slowly giving way to realization, "If the only thing he hates about it are... small things... then..."

 _They picked her up high and began chanting her name. The transition was so sharp, so clear, that Joy couldn't help but see the connection. "Mom and Dad..." she said, "The team... they came to help because of Sadness..."_

"Then he enjoys the rest... and it makes the rest that much better."

Joy closed the book and stood up, looking around at the mess he'd made. _'He was just doing his job,'_ he thought, _'And I should stick with mine... alright.'_ With determination in his eyes and a grim expression on his face, Joy stepped towards the pile Disgust had used to climb out. He was going to set things right, darn it! He was going to apologize, return Disgust's notebook, and-

 _WHRRRRR..._

The elevator began sluggishly moving, and the emergency exit flung itself shut, sealing tightly. A mindworker's voice came on the intercom, saying, "Hey! Turns out you guys lost _just_ enough weight to get her moving again! I mean, yeah, it'll probably still be fifteen or twenty minutes before you make it... actually, the stairs would've probably been quicker, but - hey - no getting out now that it's in motion. See you at the top; it'll be easier to fix there, anyways."

A burst of static, and the intercom shut off.

Joy only stared in dumb shock at the rotten luck of it all.

* * *

Back in HQ, a steadily growing amount of blue, purple, and blue-purple orbs were filling the shelves near the console. So far, though, Fear hadn't panicked, and Sadness was holding his tears back... but only barely. Across the room, in the trash can, rested his remote. He'd given up trying to use the gimmicky thing. It didn't function right, and it only allowed the smallest hints of feelings - not good. Hence why he, Anger, and Fear were all at the console again, having given up on the "Mixed Bag" Contingency.

 _The golden emotion took a moment more to stare at the scene, then quickly put the orbs back into the bag. She stood up with new found energy, resolute. She looked over at Bing Bong. "We have to get back up there," she said._

"Yeah!" Anger said enthusiastically, "That's right! Don't give up, and don't let the stinkin' _Memory Dump_ get the best of ya!"

 _"Joy," the imaginary friend replied despondently, "We're stuck down here. We might as well be on another planet."_

 _Those words struck her with an idea. "Another planet..." she whispered to herself. She looked around her. Somewhere out there, in the dump, was their ticket out of there. "Who's your friend who likes to play?" she sung out loud, listening, hoping for a musical response. Bing Bong's eyes brightened up. They waited. When nothing happened, she repeated, "Who's your friend who likes to play?"_

"Huh?" Fear asked, "What's... Oh. Oh!"

 _Bing Bong joined in, a smile returning to his face, "His rocket makes you yell 'Hooray!'"_

Anger slapped herself in the face. "Oh boy," she said. She looked over at Sadness. "Let me know when that miserable song is over," she said, then promptly covered her ears.

 _In the distance, almost imperceptibly, two notes rung out from among the rubble of forgotten memories. That was all they needed to hear. Soon enough, the two were racing across the memory dump, shouting Bing Bong's "song" at the top of their lungs, coaxing that little wagon to keep singing. Eventually, they found it and removed a mound of orbs from atop its surface. They wheeled it up to the highest mound they could find; a big pile of orbs, the perfect ramp. If they got up enough speed, could they fling themselves out of the dump? Well, one way to find out._

Fear nervously bit her fingers. "Oh, please make it please make it please make it..."

 _"Hop in!" Joy said, and they took off down the first slope, singing that song loudly. The wagon began sputtering to life, struggling to get enough of a boost to push them out. It hit the bottom of the slope, still going at full speed, and began up the second one, the ramp. They kept singing. The wheels kept turning. And then - liftoff!_

 _But not enough._

 _Dangling in the air, the rocket came only halfway to the top before falling once more._

"Nooo!" Sadness moaned, "Come on! Get up, please! You can do it, guys! You-... Y..." he sniffed, holding back tears again.

 _Bing Bong and Joy screamed in terror and smashed into the ground again. But Joy wasn't giving up that easily. "Come on!" she insisted. They tried again._

 _They failed again._

"Aaah!" Fear winced.

Sadness felt a whine come from the back of his throat. The Film Geek's heart was pounding in tension.

 _As he got to his feet, Bing Bong looked down at his arm... just in time to see it vanish completely. He was being forgotten._

Sadness swallowed hard, then sighed. "I knew it," he whispered to himself. He shook his head in sorrow.

"What?" Fear asked.

"I... I know where this is going," Sadness said. He gripped his chair, took a deep breath, and breathed out. "Okay, I'm ready..."

 _In only a matter of minutes, he would be nothing more than wisps of dust. He looked over at Joy, who was struggling to maintain her drive after seeing nothing but failure. He reached down to her with his only remaining hand. "Come on," he said, "One more try - I've got a feeling about this one."_

The blue emotion winced, reading Bing Bong's message all to clearly.

 _They loaded up and began down the slopes once more, singing along louder than ever, trying to fuel the rocket just enough to make it out._

Fear was leaning all the way forward, her arms unknowingly pressing all kinds of buttons and filling the Film Geek to the brim with anxiety. He sat rigid in his chair. His Sadness started heavily breathing in and out, his whole being quaking.

 _As they hit the bottom of the slope, Bing Bong leaned over and said, "Yes, that's it! Louder, Joy! Sing louder!" Eyes slammed shut, chanting at the top of her lungs, Joy didn't notice Bing Bong lean back as they left the ground._

"Oh no!" Fear shouted, finally putting two and two together.

 _In one fluid motion, he flung himself off._

"Ohhhh," Sadness whined, then burst into an eruption of tears. "I knew it! I kne-e-w-w i-i-t..." Sobs shook him like a dying car's engine, and he quickly reached for the tissues. Instinctively, he flicked a switch, and the Film Geek felt almost as sad as when Riley was crying in class...

Almost. But it was hard to feel as upset over an imaginary friend as one would over another human being, truth be told.

 _Unhindered by the excess weight, the wagon rocketed up into the air with Joy in it, kicking against the sky all the way to the top before crashing back on the cliff-side, safely out of the Memory Dump._

Fear melted into her seat, sighing in utter relief. "I thought I was gonna have a heart attack," she said.

 _Joy lay still for a moment, unable to believe it, then she leapt up. "Woohoo! We did it!" she shouted brightly, "We-..." she looked around, noticing that she was alone. "Bing Bong?" she said._

"Oh, you're in for a shock," Sadness said, finally getting a grip on himself as his tears stopped dripping.

 _She scrambled up to the edge and peered in. A small gasp came from her when she saw him still stuck in that pit, dancing merrily in celebration. "Bing Bong!" she shouted._

The Film Geek was transfixed by the shot; the sight alone spoke volumes. Far away, deep in that forsaken dump, Bing Bong was dancing happily, fully aware of how imminent his death was. He was annoyed by Bing Bong earlier, but - just this once - he felt an emotional attachment to the pink thing.

 _"Yeah! Hahah! Yes, you did it!" He said, not a care in the world about his rapidly vanishing body. "Go on!" he shouted, "Go save Riley!"_

So absorbed by the film, none of the others noticed Disgust stumble into HQ, panting and sweating after having run all the way up. He wasn't sure why, but he felt drawn here, as if he were needed right away. He walked slowly over to the console, watching the scene unfold. _'Strange,'_ he thought _, 'That's not annoying... that's... that's perfectly fine. Actually, that's some of the best writing in the movie! Why would I need to-'_

 _"Take her to the moon for me," he added, "Okay?"_

 _'Oh,'_ he concluded, pressing a button in one fluid motion, taking his peers completely off guard.

The Film Geek sighed in disappointment... the scene was working so beautifully, too! The extra dialogue, again, made a good scene go on for too long. Sometimes it was better to not say anything, and let the movie speak for itself.

 _With that, the imaginary friend disappeared, permanently forgotten. All that was left was a brief trail of dust, which soon disintegrated as well, leaving Joy alone and staring down into the chasm. "I'll try, Bing Bong," the yellow emotion whispered, "I promise."_

Disgust tapped the button once more before sitting down.

"You're back!" Fear said happily.

"Yes," Disgust said, finally catching his breath again, "I'm back."


	13. A Family Reunion

_Riley's parents walked in the front door, completely unaware of what was happening. "We're home!" her mother announced. After a moment of no response, she asked, "Riley?"_

"Oh, this is awful!" The Film Geek's Sadness declared, "Just awful!"

 _The two went up to her room, but she wasn't there. All that greeted them were the four bare walls. "I'll call her cell," her mom said._

 _Meanwhile, somewhere else in the sprawling cityscape, Riley walked alone down the street, lost in her thoughts._

 _"Oh, this is terrible," Fear said. Inside, he and Disgust hovered around the console with concern as Anger kept Riley moving. Fear looked up nervously, noticing something. "Wait. Is that someone walking towards us? Let's cross the street-"_

 _He was interrupted by a ringing sound. Riley glanced down at her cell phone._

"Answer it!" said Fear, "Answer it, answer it, answer it!"

"Come on, do it!" Anger added.

 _"It's Mom," Disgust said, stating the obvious._

 _"She's onto us!" Fear stuttered, "What do we do? Where's my bag?!" The purple twig went running off, looking for that brown paper bag to hyperventilate in._

 _"Riley needs to get core memories," Anger said, determination still etching his features, "We keep going."_

 _Riley ignored her Mom's call and kept walking._

"No!" Fear cried out.

"You are making all kinds of _wrong_ choices!" spouted Anger.

'Big cities always made me feel sick,' thought Disgust to himself.

* * *

Joy had his arms folded across his chest, patiently tapping his fingers and trying to come up with a proper apology. "Okay," he said out loud, "How about this?" He cleared his throat, then looked at one of the green memories, pretending to be talking to Disgust. "I'm sorry I planned to dump these all in the memory dump out of spite... No, no, too wordy... hmm..." he paced back and forth, tapping his chin.

He snapped his fingers, and said, "Disgust, I'm sorry about trying to wipe these from existence... no, too dramatic... gah!"

He furrowed his brows and kept pacing, trying to think hard about the predicament. He took a quick glance up at the elevator's floor counter. It was barely changing, going at a snail's pace.

Joy groaned in frustration and kicked a memory, then hissed and rubbed his foot as he flopped down onto the ground.

When the throbbing pain left, Joy saw that the elevator had gone up a whopping five floors. He scowled again. "Okay..." he said out loud, "Apologies... apologies..." He scratched his head and kept thinking.

 _Meanwhile, in her head, down in Long Term, an increasingly panicked Joy was scurrying around, trying desperately to find her small blue friend. "Sadness! Sadness!" she kept calling out, but earned no response from the other. Slowing to a stop, Joy decided to think about the situation. "Come on, where are you? Okay, if I were Sadness, where would I be?"_

Joy couldn't stand the memory orbs digging into his back and legs, and quickly adjusted himself. A soft _click_ accompanied this. "What?" he asked.

He quickly stood up. _Disgust's remote_. He must have accidentally left it in here. It was currently lit up golden, Joy having accidentally pressed it while changing positions. "Woops," he muttered to himself. On the outside, the Film Geek was chuckling at what was unfolding on screen.

 _Getting into Sadness's mindset, Joy slumped over and collapsed lazily onto the floor, a droopy frown crossing her face as she moaned, "Oh, everything is awful and my legs don't work, and you have to drag me around while I touch all the..." Her eyes widened. She looked over, noticing a familiar trail of blue memory orbs, freshly converted by a certain emotion. Bingo. Joy jumped up and followed the trail._

* * *

Back in HQ, the others were watching the film still as a small gold sphere rolled in.

 _Tensions were mounting in HQ as Riley got in line for the city bus, nighttime drawing in. There she was, an eleven-year-old all alone, about to cross the entire country with strangers. Her phone rang again. A look of concern hit her._

"Please," the Film Geek's Fear begged, her hands clasped together, "Please, just answer it now!"

"Come on!" Anger insisted, "You're so close!"

 _"Oh no. It's Mom again," Riley's Fear announced. Inside her head, he'd found his brown bag, and currently had it in a death grip._

 _"What do we do?" Disgust asked Anger._

 _"Uh..." the small red emotion responded. He tried and tried and tried to think, but concern, worry, and trepidation suddenly sunk his characteristic stubbornness. He was having second thoughts about this "running away" thing._

 _That's when Riley acted on her own, flicking her phone off and stepping into the bus._

"Ohhhh noooo..." the real Sadness moaned. Fear hissed. Anger snarled.

Disgust remained neutral, silently observing the film.

 _The warning lights went off in on-screen Anger's head while Fear popped his bag from breathing too hard. "This is madness!" the red emotion shouted, "She shouldn't run away!"_

 _They all scrambled over to the idea jammed into the console. "Quick, let's get this idea out of her head!" Disgust said. No need to say it twice; Anger already had his hands wrapped firmly around the bulb._

"Come on, get it out get it out get it out!" Fear shouted, standing up.

Sadness winced in pain, thinking of how painful it is to grab a lit bulb.

 _Joy noticed Family Island take another hit, shaking and threatening to break. She groaned. "Sadness?" she called out, still looking frantically for her. At last, though, she rounded the corner and saw the blue thing running by a shelf, sobbing uncontrollably as she ran her fingers across the memories. "Sadness!" Joy called out._

The Film Geek felt relief briefly - oh so briefly - hit him...

 _It got her attention. Sadness spun around, and - for a moment - relief and hope swept across her face. "Joy?" she asked._

 _The relief was gone instantly as Sadness was swallowed by her depression once more, "Just let me go!" she shouted, turning and running again, "Riley is better off without me!"_

...and it was replaced by annoyance and anger.

Inside his head, Disgust and Anger were each practically shouting at the screen.

"What's wrong with you?" Anger roared, "Don't you dare run away now!"

"Come on!" Disgust said, "Not now! Not now, of all times!"

Sadness simply sighed in frustration while Fear remain frozen, eyes glued to the screen and heart racing as she began slowly twisting a knob. The Film Geek felt tension rising.

 _Joy wasn't going to give up that easily. She gave chase. "Come back!"_

 _Inexplicably, the scene jumped to Cloud Town, where two police were interviewing a cloud woman, in front of the same house where Bing Bong had blown away a cloud man earlier. "Alright, let me get this straight," said one of the cops, "You're saying your husband was blown away by an elephant."_

 _"Was he with anyone?" asked the other._

 _Right on cue, Sadness came running by, still crying. The cloud person jumped at the chance. "Yes! and there she is!"_

 _Joy ran by as well, running right through the cloud person and turning her into nothing but a fine mist._

 _"Hey! Get back here" one of the cops said, about to chase down Joy. The other simply grabbed his wrist, stopping him._

 _"Forget_ _it Jake," he said, removing his glasses with a suspicious squint at the scenery, "It's Cloud Town."_

"...was that supposed to be a reference to something?" Disgust said.

"Probably," replied Anger.

"Well, I didn't get it," shrugged the green emotion, and flicked a button. The Film Geek felt minor annoyance, but not enough to drown out the overwhelming, heart-pounding intensity as the scene continued to unfold.

 _Sadness outran Joy, who was quickly running out of breath. "Sadness..." she said. The pitter-patter of raindrops hit her as a cloud passed overhead. She yanked her gaze up, to see Sadness sitting on a cloud that was drifting by, still bawling her eyes out._

Sadness snorted in humor, flicking a button. A blue-and-gold orb came rolling in. The blue emotion did a double-take at that, then smiled in relief. Looks like Joy had a remote, at least.

* * *

"Ahh! No, I didn't mean to do that!" Joy said to nobody in particular as he fiddled with the remote. In an attempt to fix it (well, not really, but one button was bent a little, and he was trying to unbend it), he'd pressed a button again, and the remote flared to golden before receding again.

"Oh, Disgust is gonna kill me..." he thought aloud.

 _"I only make everything worse!" Riley's Sadness shouted through her sobs. She was quickly drifting away._

 _"Sadness, wait!" Joy shouted, running after her, deeper into Imagination Land, "We've got to get you back to..."_

 _No use. Sadness's cloud was faster than Joy's feet. She'd never catch up this way. The gold emotion looked around. What could she do? She saw Family Island, with its giant trampoline. She saw a giant balloon, full of air. She saw..._

 _The imaginary boyfriend, standing at the end of that conveyor belt, taking selfies and messing with his hair._

 _It clicked together in Joy's head. She had an idea._

* * *

 _Meanwhile, in HQ, Anger, Fear, and Disgust were trying to get rid of an idea. Anger pulled and pulled and pulled, but the lightbulb remained unmoving. "It's stuck!" he declared._

"I knew it!" Sadness said, voice trembling in horror, "Oh, I just knew it!"

 _"Oh great!" Disgust said, "Now what?"_

"Break it!" Shouted Anger. The others looked at her in confusion. She shrugged. "Well, worth a shot!"

"That sounds like a dangerous plan..." Fear said timidly, one hand still on the tension knob.

 _"What?" asked Riley's Fear "Wha-What do you mean it's stuck? How do we stop it?!"_

 _"I got it!" Disgust proclaimed, "Make her feel scared!"_

"Exactly!" Fear declared, "Think of all the horrible things that can happen to a little kid on the run!"

 _"Brilliant!" Fear said, darting over to the controls._

 _"I know it's brilliant," came Disgust's worried voice, "Do it!"_

 _Fear pressed a button._

The Film Geek's Fear smiled.

 _Nothing happened._

The smile turned to a frown.

 _He slammed his fist down on it again, and still nothing happened._

Her eyes widened and she bit her lip.

 _He pulled levers, twisted knobs, and turned dials, but to no avail. The console may as well have been dead. "Nothing's working!" he panicked, "Why isn't it working?!"_

 _"Let me try!" Anger shouted, slamming his fist on the console._

 _"Great!" spat Disgust, "You've broken it!"_

 _"No!" Anger denied._

 _"Move, move, let me do it!"_

 _"No, let me do it! Get outta the way!"_

 _As the two began bickering, Fear stepped back, noticing something dreadful. A black, swirling - what's the word? - rot... was spreading across the console, flooding it and sucking the light away. All that remained glowing was that solitary, taunting little lightbulb, like the eye of a monster._

"Aaaah!" Fear declaed, her hand cranking the tension knob even further up with a sudden motion.

 _"Guys..." Fear said, "We can't make Riley feel anything."_

Sadness stared in numb shock.

 _It took a moment for it to sink in. Anger's voice shook with shock as he said, "What have we done?"_

"What have you done?!" the Film Geek's blue emotion whined, "Oh, you've done it! Oh, the cruel, cruel irony that their attempt to save Riley ended like this!"

 _Down in Long Term, Joy kicked her plan into motion, first by approaching the imaginary boyfriend._

"Oh, great," Disgust muttered, "This loser."

 _"Hey! Hey, over here," she said, getting his dazed attention. "Did you mean what you said before?" Joy asked._

 _The guy leapt from the conveyor dramatically, more of a caricature than a character as he said, "I would die for Riley. I would die for Riley!" over and over again, like a robot._

A smile fluttered over his face at the stupidity of the character.

 _"Yeah, yeah, okay, haircut," Joy said, slamming Bing-Bong's void of a bag over the imaginary boyfriend, "time to prove it." Not wasting a second, she darted over to the conveyor belt, positioned the bag just in front of it, and turned it on, punching in an order for as many of the clones as the machine could crank out. Joy impatiently waited, biting her lip as an army of the things came rolling out, dropping off rapidly into the bag, each with a bold declaration that he would "die for Riley."_

Disgust snorted suddenly, and quite loudly, startling the others. "Sorry," he said through a half-chuckle. He cleared his throat and composed himself again. "S-Sorry," he repeated, face once more apathetic.

 _Deciding that that was enough, Joy yanked the bag away and ran off, leaving the clones to pile up at the conveyor's base._

The smile returned on Disgust's face, though.

 _She made her way to the area where Sadness's cloud was drifting, right by the house of cards. She quickly undid a nearby balloon and let a burst of air shoot Sadness's ride off, drifting towards Family Island... and knocking the card house over in the process._

 _"That's it!" snapped one of the mindworkers who was in the middle of its construction, "I fold!"_

The Film Geek's Disgust rolled his eyes and the Film Geek himself felt annoyance again. _'That wasn't funny,'_ he thought.

* * *

 _Joy would probably have apologized, but she was already gone, right in front of Family Island. She squinted, lining up her position with the trampoline and Sadness's drifting cloud. Satisfied that all was in place, Joy undid the bag, and a stacked tower of the imaginary boyfriends sprouted up like Jack's Beanstock, with Joy at the top._

The Film Geek felt very amused by the sight. He wasn't aware, however, of _why_ he felt so amused; Joy's elevator had reached the top floor, but the doors were still jammed shut. Seeing this, the small gold emotion did the only thing he could think of, and jammed his remote into the cracks. Currently, he was wriggling it back and forth, trying his hardest to pry the doors open. "Come on, come on, come on..." he whispered under his breath.

* * *

Meanwhile, Disgust had on a growing grin, and he was struggling harder and harder to keep it down.

 _It took a moment for everyone to get their balance, but after they did, Joy realized her situation thoroughly. "This is crazy... this is crazy!" she said to herself._

 _'Come on,'_ the green feeling thought to himself, _'Don't laugh, just grin... just grin, stay calm...'_

 _"No," she muttered, "No, no, come on, Joy, be positive..." s_ _he looked down and gulped, then shouted out loud, "I'm positive this is crazy!"_

As Disgust's smile went away again, he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, but outwardly sighed in frustration.

He slapped another annoyed button.

The Film Geek sighed slightly in irritation.

His Joy flung the elevator doors open.

 _Joy saw Sadness's cloud float into position. It was now or never._

The real Joy rounded the corner into the room (tossing aside that useless remote in the process), and was about to scream an apology at the top of his lungs (he'd finally settled on one that, while being honest regarding his intent to dump all the green memories, wasn't over-the-top, either - Disgust would appreciate that).

But everything happened at once, and he simply had to react to what he saw on screen.

 _Resolved, the golden emotion shouted down to her living ladder, "Now!"_

 _"For Riley!" came the chorus of voices, as they all came tumbling forward. The tower fell, many of the little robot-like clones falling off into the abyss as Joy's path brought her right down onto Family Island's trampoline._

"Bahahahahahaaaah!" The cackling guffaw erupted loud, startling everyone in the room. It was the loudest laugh they'd ever heard, an explosive crackle of hilarity, erupting from the mouth of... well, _Disgust_.

The emotion found himself clutching his aching gut as he laughed and laughed and laughed, looking at the sight on screen. He tumbled out of his chair, convulsing with each chuckle. Sadness made a move to help, but Disgust waved him away. "I'm- I'm fine... I'm fine," he said, tears rolling down his burning cheeks. Panting and out of breath, he tried regaining his calm demeanor as he stood up, wiping a tear away. "It's just... heh, they're so _patheitc!_ My gosh, they're so _one-dimensional!_ It's... it's hilarious, simply hi-hehla-hehhahahahaaah!"

With that, he was laughing again. He turned around, yanking his hat off his head and using it as a fan, trying to cool off his winded face. Things didn't usually make the cynic laugh so hard, but when they did, they did. He looked up, and his green eyes met Joy's blue ones.

For a moment, they were both still. The other emotions tensed up, anticipating the fight.

Then, spittle flew out as the two exploded into giggles and sniggers. "Oh my gosh!" Joy said, eyes practically shut.

"Did you see the stupid- the-" Disgust tried talking through fitful laughs.

"I saw it! I saw it!" Joy replied.

"For Riiileeyyyy!" Mocked Disgust.

That did Joy in. The golden emotion was hit with another wave of uncontrollable hilarity, and he collapsed to the ground. Disgust bent down and helped him up, but then almost fell over himself. They both found themselves cracking up uncontrollably, arms slung over eachother like two buddies walking home from the bar, barely stumbling along as they made their way back to the controls.

In the theater, the Film Geek was the last one to stop laughing at the sight of the toppling ladder of Imaginary Boyfriends, and the smile remained glued to his face for longer than that. Eventually, though, his Disgust and Joy got ahold of themselves and slowed their laughter to a stop, each noticing the gold-and-green orb that was just created.

 _Riley's Joy bounced up and went sailing through the air. Her trajectory allowed her to catch Sadness, snatching the little blue ball off of the cloud right away... much to the shock of said blue ball._

 _"Joy?" Sadness asked, an incredulous smile forming across her mouth._

 _"Hang on!" Joy warned, looking straight ahead. They were sailing right towards HQ._

 _"Oh, I wish Joy was here!" Fear whined, wringing his hands nervously._

 _Smack! Joy and Sadness hit the window. The others noticed right_ away, _and ran over to see. There they were; Joy and Sadness, inexplicably by the window, hanging on by a thread. Something had to be done, and quick!_

"Oh, please hurry..." Fear whispered to herself.

Disgust sighed in despondence again. _'Let me guess: some absolutely hilarious character is going to say: "Gasp! Quickly, Fear! Say you wish everything was back to normal!" and then 'hah hah hah' we're all supposed to laugh as nothing happens, as if that joke's_ never _been done in the history of cinema, ever.'_

But Disgust's prediction didn't come true, to his (and the Film Geek's) pleasant surprise.

 _"Stand back!" said Anger, chair in hand. He threw it at the window..._

 _...and it did nothing. "Great work," Disgust quipped._

The Film Geek snorted in amusement.

 _"Well, what would you do if you're so smart?!" demanded Anger._

 _An idea struck Disgust._

The real Joy said, "Ohhh... clever! I think I know where this is going!"

"Me, too!" Disgust said, leaning in his chair as he looked forward to hearing a creative, well-thought out, witty insult from his on-screen counterpart.

 _"I'd tell you, but you're too dumb to understand," she said sarcastically._

The real Disgust furrowed his brows in puzzlement.

 _"What?!" Anger snapped. A flicker of flame briefly lit his head._

 _"Of course your tiny brain is confused!" Disgust pressed, "I guess I'll just have to dumb it down to your level!"_

Her male counterpart sighed in disappointment. "Man..." he thought to himself, "I thought you were going to be more creative than that..."

 _With each word, Anger got more and more agitated._

 _"Sorry I don't speak moron as well as you," continued Disgust, "but let me try: duhhhhh..." at which point she crossed her eyes, stuck her tongue out, and generally made the dumbest face possible._

"Pssh," Disgust spat.

Joy made a move to open his mouth and complain about Disgust's cynicism again, but checked himself. In the first place, Disgust was just doing his job, as usual. In the second place...

Well, even Joy would admit, that wasn't funny. At all.

"Hmph," said the Film Geek quietly. _'What a wasted opportunity to - oh, I don't know -_ actually make a creative, humorous jab _instead of some generic insults_ _...'_ *****

 _Opinions of the screenwriting aside, Disgust's plan worked: Anger erupted, a blinding blaze of fire above his head. Smiling, Disgust threw on a welding mask and picked up her short friend. She quickly faced him at the window like a blowtorch, the heat shattering the glass almost immediately on contact. Without wasting a second more, the others pulled Joy and Sadness in._

"Oh, thank goodness!" Fear exhaled (she'd been reflexively holding her breath).

 _Joy and Sadness looked up. The others surrounded them, their voices an indeterminate flurry of words like "Thank goodness you're here!" and "We really messed things up," and "We found this idea, and-..."_

 _"Oh no," Joy said, taking the awful sight in._

"Oh no is right," Sadness agreed.

 _"Joy," said Fear, "you've gotta fix this!"_

 _"Sadness, it's up to you," Joy said right away._

"Yes!" Joy (the real one) said, and the Film Geek mouthed the word, 'finally' to himself before taking a slurp of the melted ice in his cup.

 _Sadness was shocked. "Me?"_

 _As were the others. "Sadness?!"_

 _"I can't, Joy!" Sadness insisted, seeming to shrink away._

"Oh yes you can!" Anger said to the screen, "Don't you even _try_ pulling out now!"

 _"Yes, you can," Joy said, "Riley needs you."_

 _Sadness thought about it for a moment, hesitating before finally admitting it. "Okay," she said_ , _and waddled nervously over to the console._

"Okay, here it goes..." Fear said to herself, hand clenched on that tension knob once more...

 _The small blue emotion walked up to the bright light, timidly reaching for it. She breathed in, she breathed out, and she grabbed it._

Fear gritted her teeth tightly. All other emotions leaned in, eyes glued to the screen.

 _The bus began pulling out of the parking lot, with Riley inside._

"Aaah!" Fear yelped. The others jumped in their seats. "Sorry..." she sheepishly whispered.

 _Joy and the others looked on nervously, each the epitome of anxiety._

 _Slowly, Sadness wiggled at the lightbulb, exerting all her strength to twist it and turn it... for a moment, it looked like it wasn't going to give._

"Please..." Sadness begged the film, as if that would do anything.

Fear bit her lips, on edge.

Anger and Joy were stunned silent.

In the back of his head, Disgust faintly considered that, even though Pixar wouldn't have the guts to end a movie on a sour note, the tension was still there.

 _And then... it turned and came out, just like that - obedient to Sadness and her alone. Slowly, the blackness receded ans ceased its suffocation of the console. Lights flickered back on as it returned to life._

Cheers erupted in the Film Geek's HQ. Anger and Joy were yelling in delight. Sadness was clapping. Fear sunk back into her seat, sighing in relief, and Disgust wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. Truly, the most intense part was over.

 _Just like... well, just like a lightswitch... Riley's eyes widened, and emotion returned to her previously-lifeless face. "Wait," she said, standing up," Stop! I need to get off." The bus driver complied without a word, and Riley quickly hopped off and ran, making a beeline for her house._

 _Back at home, her parents were worried sick, her father pacing back and forth as her mother hung up the phone. She looked up with worry. "Her teacher hasn't even seen Riley all day!"_

The celebrations stopped as all the emotions remembered the parents. "Oh, yeah..." Sadness said.

"They're probably worried sick!" Fear declared.

 _"What?" Mr. Andersen asked, "What was she wearing last?"_

Fear and Sadness whimpered together at that, automatically grabbing each other in a hug of terror. The Film Geek briefly considered the implications of that line. Sure, it could mean that they were wanting to give police Riley's whereabouts, but...

He suppressed a horrified shudder. He'd heard his mom frequently talk to his little sister about what she was and wasn't allowed to wear, mostly to avoid attracting the eyes of sick-minded men. Riley was out there alone, and - for all her parents knew - in the hands of a stranger...

The shudder occurred anyways. That wasn't going to happen to Riley, the Film Geek knew, but - all the same - the mere implication of it were enough to scare him.

 _"I can't believe this!" her mom said._

 _Her Dad, equally as frantic, replied, "Do you even remember what-"_

 _The door opened. Riley stepped in and stood still, quietly staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact.  
_

In the Film Geek's head, Sadness and Fear let go, each wearing haggard expressions of relief. The brief horror passed, and the movie continued.

 _"Riley!" They immediately were down by her side. "Thank goodness!"_

 _"We were worried sick!"_

 _"Where have you been this late?"_

 _Question after question and worry after worry came flooding_ in, _but wound down just as quickly. In the silence that followed, Riley was struggling to keep herself composed._

Sadness did the same as tears began forming around his eyes. He fumbled around for a tissue, but - to his shock - the box was empty!

"I'll go get some more," Disgust said quickly, getting up and darting back to do the task.

 _"I know you don't want me to," she began, "But... but I miss home."_

The Film Geek breathed in, and breathed out. An empathetic throb rocked his heart.

 _Sympathy crossed her parents' faces, but they said nothing. Riley continued._

 _"I know you need me to be happy... but..." a deep breath. She was trying so hard._

"Keep it together..." Fear cautioned Sadness... "Come on, you can hold it together..."

"I-I-I..." Sadness stuttered, then coughed. His eyes were filling up rapidly. _'Hurry up, Disgust!'_ Fear thought.

 _Inside Riley's head, Joy looked down at the bag of memories she was carrying. She looked at Sadness. She looked at the orbs, and, with a sigh of resignation, took one out. It was the "Friendship" core memory. She walked over to Sadness and handed it out to her._

The Film Geek nodded his head. _'That's right...'_

 _The little blue emotion only hesitated a moment, then took the small golden sphere. It shimmered and rippled, its surface fading from yellow to blue. Sadness took the bag as well, and walked over to the projector. She silently let the core float up into the air, letting Riley recall one of those things she so dearly missed._

Sadness was hyperventilating.

 _"I want my old friends..."_

"Sorry! Found 'em!" Disgust shouted, running back. He tripped, though, and fell. The tissues went flying across the room and his glasses slid across the floor.

 _The hockey core memory was next. It, too, was now a shimmering blue ball._

Fear caught the tissues, then fumbled, then dropped them again. "Oh, for the love of-" Anger said, snatching them up and shoving them to Sadness.

"Th-Th-Th..." Sadness said, unable to even thank Anger through his breaking voice.

 _"...and my hockey team..."_

Disgust stood up, then scowled. "Oh, great," he muttered, squinting around the blurry world for his glasses.

Joy noticed, and got out of his seat to hand them to his coworker.

 _Memory after memory was recalled, each now washed in an_ _icy cold tinge._

Sadness was still breathing heavily.

"Do... do you need-" Fear began, but Sadness stuck a hand up.

"I got this..." he said through a sniff. The tissues were untouched.

 _As tears began to collect around her eyes, Riley finished what she had to say. "I want to go home... please don't be mad."_

Disgust put his glasses on. "Thanks," he whispered.

"No prob," said Joy.

They stood there, so captivated by the movie that their legs didn't move them back to their chairs.

 _Her parents' hearts melted at the sight. "Oh, sweetie," her mom said._

 _"We're not mad," explained her father, "And you know what?" Riley looked up at him. "I miss Minnesota, too. I miss the woods where we took hikes... and the backyard where you used to play... Spring lake, where you learned to skate..."_

 _Riley began breaking down sobbing. "Hey, come here," her dad said. He drew her and his wife in a close embrace._

A whining whimper squeaked from the back of the blue emotion's throat. "That's so beautiful..." he said, tears still held at bay.

 _Inside Riley's head, Sadness was at the controls, smiling warmly. For once, she was able to do her job, and do it well. Joy_ _smiled as well, backing away from the console. This was Sadness's time to shine, and she didn't want to interfere._

Sadness's lip trembled. His hands twitched across the control panel's surface. The Film Geek felt a warm cut across his heart, the signal that tears might soon come.

 _But then Sadness did something unexpected; she turned around and grabbed Joy's wrist. Confused, but curious, Joy followed her friend's lead, as she led her to the console._

All emotions stared as though they were stone. Only Sadness moved, locked in combat against his tears. Somehow... somehow now didn't feel like the time to cry. He wasn't sure why, but... it just didn't.

 _Softly, Sadness guided Joy's hand to a button, and they both pressed it down. The console's lit-up surface shifted and changed, no longer just blue as throbbing golden waves crossed over it. Joy looked quickly up to the screen in wonder. What was this that was happening?_

The Film Geek's jaw dropped slightly in wonder. _'Perfect,'_ he thought _, 'Simply perfect...'_

 _Riley slowly smiled beneath her tears._

 _All the emotions - save Sadness - were numb with awe._

A near mirror image was in the Film Geek's head. No words disrupted the moment. Anger's eyes were wide. Fear's posture was rigid. Sadness's quivering frame didn't move to press any buttons. Disgust mouthed a exclamation of wonder to himself, and Joy had tears brewing under his eyelids as well, tears of sheer happiness, and a giant grin spreading across his poorly-shaven face.

 _A flash of light distracted them from the screen._

 _There came rolling in a new memory, blindingly bright; a core memory, its contents a bittersweet blue and yellow. The five watched it as it slid down into the floor, straight to the center of the room, and activated. A new beam of light shot out from HQ. Everyone ran over to see the sight._

 _A new Family Island blossomed to life, with San Francisco's skyline and bridge decorating it._

The Film Geek smiled in admiration at the screen. This was a _good_ film. He didn't feel sad, or happy, or anything in particular but wonder... sheer wonder. This... this was beautiful. And he felt numb with wonder.

 _Each emotion took in the meaning of this, and each one found themselves smiling with relief and wonder. Joy and Sadness walked back to the console, where there was more work to do. Genuinely happy, Sadness held the taller emotion's hand, and they continued watching as their work unfolded before their eyes. For the first time, Sadness was able to fulfill her purpose... and, also for the first time, she had what the others always took for granted - a friend. Truly, things were looking much better than before._

The Film Geek nearly began applauding the wonderful storytelling he was seeing, but checked himself, remembering where he was.

Joy looked over at Disgust. _'Now,'_ he thought, _'Before the movie moves along...'_

He cleared his throat.

"I wasn't crying!" Disgust spat, putting his glasses back on with a sniff.

Joy furrowed his brows in confusion.

An awkward moment of silence hit, and Disgust coughed. "What? What were you gonna say?"

"Oh! Right... I just..." Joy sighed. "Disgust, I wanted to say... I'm... sorry. I'm sorry for how I acted." He stuck out his hand. "That's all."

A bit short? Yes, but he'd thought about it long and hard. Truth be told, that's _exactly_ the kind of apology Disgust would appreciate: short and to the point.

The green emotion looked down at the offered hand, then back up to his coworker. He faintly smiled. "Oh, we're cool, man. We're cool," he said, grabbing Joy's hand and pulling him in for a brief, unexpected hug. He patted his back, then let go and quickly spun the still-surprised emotion around. "Now," he continued, "Let's finish this up and go home!"

* * *

 ***Quite a few people have asked what I would do if I were writing the film. Well, I'm not an official screenwriter (yet), so please understand that I'm not presuming to know more about writing than them. Going strictly by personal preference and opinion, along with wanting to have a creative jab come from Disgust, I'd probably make it something like this:**

 **ANGER:**  
Stand back!

ANGER throws the CHAIR against the GLASS. It does not work.

 **DISGUST:**  
Great work.

 **ANGER:**  
Well, what would you do if you're so smart?!

DISGUST's face brightens up. She has an IDEA.

 **DISGUST:**  
I don't know, why don't you just head over  
and grab another bulb, huh? I mean, since  
your last plan worked out so well!

 **ANGER:  
** (as a spark of flame briefly flickers)  
What?!

 **DISGUST:**  
You heard me, hothead! If it weren't for you,  
we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!  
So, thanks again for that! As for my idea,  
I think it would be just _great_ if we tried  
throwing _you_ at the window - your thick skull  
should be hard enough to crack it.

ANGER erupts in RAGE. FLAMES again. DISGUST pulls down a WELDER's MASK and uses ANGER's FIRE to break open the window.

DISGUST and FEAR pull JOY and SADNESS in.

We focus on DISGUST and ANGER as DISGUST helps him to his feet.

 **DISGUST:**  
Hey, sorry about that - I couldn't  
think of any other way to get it open.

 **ANGER:  
** Yeah, but...

WIDE SHOT as we focus on the control panels and ALL THE EMOTIONS take the horrible sight in.

 **ANGER (CONT'D):  
** Still, look at this...

 **FEAR:  
** You can fix this, right Joy?

 **JOY:**  
It's up to you, Sadness!

And, from there, the scene plays out like normal. Is it perfect? No. Is it funny? Probably only to me, not to many other people. It's just an opinion on how I - personally - would've written the scene out.


	14. Denouement

What more was left to be said, then? As the remainder of the film played out, the Film Geek took it all in.

When he saw Riley's new Personality Islands, with their vibrant new colors and expanded sights, (and after laughing a bit at a few of the names of said Islands) he couldn't help but feel wonder. The scenery was gorgeous, and it reminded him of how far Pixar had come since their days of Toy Story. His joy only grew when her new console was revealed, not in the least because he recognized the cameo appearance of one John Ratzenberger.

The mispronunciation of "Puberty" almost made him laugh, but wasn't quite funny enough. A flicker of irritation reflexively hit him, but passed like a spark. He snickered when Anger got censored, and laughed at Fear's overall demeanor.

As Riley prepared to go out on the hockey rink for a game, wearing a somewhat embarrassed expression, the camera cut to her parents' faces, painted with the colors of her new team, the Foghorns. The Film Geek nervously chuckled, but mostly cringed in sympathetic embarrassment. While not athletic, he did recall a few overenthusiastic moments from his own mom and dad at various school activities. Try as he might, though, he couldn't stay irritated. He smiled and loosened up.

At that moment, Riley bumped into a boy, knocking his water bottle out of his hand. "Oh!" she exclaimed, and quickly bent down to pick it up, "Sorry..."

But the boy was spaced out, as if paralyzed.

Inside his head, his emotions were in a flurry, running around and panicking (Fear was crying) as an alarm blared, "Girl! Girl! Girl!" over and over again. Red light flooded it all. The Film Geek cracked up, thoroughly enjoying himself and relating all-too well to the poor kid. Riley awkwardly set the bottle down next to him, said a confused, "Okay... uh, bye..." and then walked out to the rink as the wide-eyed kid watched.

She took up position with her team. In her head, her emotions were geared up and ready to go.

 _"Ready?" Riley's Joy asked Sadness._

 _"Yeah," she replied, a warm smile on her face._

Inside, the Film Geek felt his heart warm up. Accepted at last by the others, Sadness was free to do her job, to fulfill her purpose in life. While he'd never been an outcast, nor had he really experienced the neglect that Sadness had, the Film Geek felt the same wonderful happiness that Sadness was feeling at that moment, a testimony to the Filmmakers' skills.

Things were certainly going good towards the film's end as Joy wrapped up her narration. The Film Geek was happy, enjoying the movie and the way it resolved.

 _"After all, Riley's twelve now... what could happen?"_

* * *

"Oh, come on! Really?" Joy protested. Disgust had pressed the button one last time, and his golden peer wasn't exactly happy with it.

"Yep," Disgust happily said aloud as the Film Geek's eyes flickered up to the ceiling for a second.

"But-" Joy began. Fear cut him off.

"Shh!" she hissed, "We have a little bit left!"

 _Up on screen, Riley's teacher was struggling to not get upset at her unresponsive class._

 _Inside her head, her five emotions, dressed like her down to the same hair, were scattered about the room. Anger was in the back, pounding her head against a globe._

"Heh," chuckled Sadness.

 _"How much more of this?" asked the teacher's Disgust._

 _"Five months, two weeks, and four days until summer vacation," answered her Sadness in a monotone drone._

 _Joy peaked up at that. "Then it's off to the Bahamas," she said, pressing a button, "With You-Know-Who..."_

 _A memory was recalled, and the Brazilian Helicopter Pilot popped into view. "Fly with me, crianchinha..." he said._

 _The teacher's emotions all sighed dreamily._

The real Joy choked on his drink laughing while Disgust scoffed, muttering something about the shallowness of it all.

 _In that terrible Pizza shop, the worker had just given a slice to a customer. "Have a nice day," she said, moodily._

"Well, you too, little miss sunshine!" Anger grumbled.

 _In her head, a group of emo emotions slouched together around the console, looking just as moody._

 _"What are we mad about?" her Disgust asked._

 _"I dunno," said her Sadness, in a comically deep voice, "Whatever Troy's mad about."_

 _A pause as they contemplated it. "What's Troy mad about?"_

 _All the others shrugged in dismissal._

Disgust joined Joy in a brief chuckle.

 _The scene jumped into the head of the "cool girl" in Riley's class. Her emotions were all panicked-looking._

 _"We are a total fraud!" Fear declared, "Do you think they can see through us?"_

 _"Of course not!" Disgust said, "We're wearing eye shadow!"_

"Awww," said the Film Geek's Sadness, ending with a sympathetic, "Heh."

And so it went on, through the eyes of a clown (Disgust laughed the most at that), the bus driver (the Film Geek let out a full-blown guffaw), and a cat and dog (more laughter... but not nearly as much was earned as when the bus driver's rage-fueled feelings exploded into fire individually. Something about it simply tickled the Film Geek's funny bone). Even as he left the theater, he was still tittering about the bus driver's overreaction to the gum commercial jingle. As he got in his car and started it up for the drive home, his body went to auto-pilot, and his mind drifted, reminiscing about the experience he had with the film...

* * *

"Alright!" Disgust proclaimed, clapping his hands together, "Who wants to go first?"

At first, nobody volunteered, but - then - Fear raised a timid hand up. Disgust nodded and gestured to her, and the purple emotion stepped up in front of the monitor, pulling up a thick stack of papers. Sadness squinted at them... they looked like the ramblings of an insane person.

"Oh boy..." Anger grimaced.

Fear cleared her throat, and began.

"W-Well, uh... I'd say it was a pretty good movie, heh... the - uh... th-the animation was great! And so was the acting, so... yeah!"

She paused and looked to her companions, as if searching for confirmation. They were silent, awkwardly staring. "Uh... I liked it, too..." Sadness said, "I think we all did..."

"Right! Heh, right, so..." Fear fumbled with the papers, then pulled one out, "I-I just remembered, after the movie ended: um... _how the heck did Disney know about us?!_ " Nobody moved to respond, but Anger slouched over and groaned, closing her eyes in frustration as Fear added, "It's not natural, and it's not right! They should _not_ have access to such knowledge, so intimately! And I - for one - think we should work on dumping these memories before something bad can happen!"

"Fear..." Anger said softly, but her friend was yammering away faster and faster, as her personal fears swelled up.

"And what if we get _brain damage_ from this?! What if it messes up our psyche?! What if-"

"Fear!" Anger shouted. The quivering emotion froze, two papers floating down to the ground gently. As if waiting for them to stop before continuing, Anger followed them with her eyes. She then looked back to Fear. "You're freaking out over nothing," she said.

"B-But- But-"

"She's right," Sadness said, "It was just a movie..." he shrugged.

"But the _knowledge!_ " Fear shouted, flinging the papers around as she threw exacerbated hands into the air, "These are things people aren't meant to know! We should-"

"We should worry later," Disgust interrupted, in an effort to calm Fear down. It seemed to work.

"Right," Fear said.

"Breathe in..." commanded Sadness.

Fear breathed in.

"Breathe out..."

She exhaled.

"Okay," Fear said, then cleared her throat, "The movie itself."

Everyone nodded.

"Well, I liked it," she said. A nervous grin spread as she clasped her hands together, "But - but, boy it had some pretty intense parts, I'm not gonna lie! Like when the Islands came crashing down... and the Memory Dump... and when Riley ran away... actually, _that_ was the scariest." Fear shuddered at the thought, "I remember when she did that, I kept- I kept thinking of all the horrible things that could happen to a little girl walking through San Francisco alone... and- and I know they wouldn't include it in a _Pixar_ movie, but the fact remains that she could've been kidnapped, and... and... well..." Fear gulped, then looked intensely down into the ground at her feet. She shook the idea away. "But it was a good movie," she said, "I-I really enjoyed it, so... yeah."

She walked over and returned to her designated seat. "Well," Anger said, "Ladies first. I'll be next."

She hopped down from her chair and began pacing in front of the others. "Where to begin?" she began, "Oh, I know! How about we begin with all the _idiocy_ coming from Riley's Joy!" She gestured wildly with her hands. "What a controlling little _snot!_ I swear, I really hated her at the start of the film! I really, _really_ did!"

"Don't you think-" Joy began.

"No! No, I mean it, Joy! Riley's Joy was wrong from the start, and I know that's the point of it all... so I guess the filmmakers did a good job getting their point across."

Disgust nodded imperceptibly.

"I also hated Bing Bong, and his _stupid_ song! I mean, I didn't hate him enough to like when he _died,_ for crying out loud, but - still - I really really really didn't like that pink elephant. And there were a few plot points that weren't addressed - why didn't Joy just send the core memories back up the tube, huh?!"

"...because she was a control freak?" Sadness offered.

Anger pondered it. "Hmm, maybe. But still: there are many unaccounted-for plot points that I'd like to understand. For starters, when Joy and Ding-Dong-"

"B-Bing Bong," Fear corrected.

"It's called sarcasm," Anger said, "When Joy and Bing Bong were in the dump, why not head over to the base of HQ? I mean, I don't know if there's an emergency entrance or anything, but it would've sure been worth a shot, y'know? And another thing that bugged me: why didn't the mindworkers help out more?! Couldn't Joy have just explained everything to them and gotten a ride back to HQ?"

"They tried that-"

"No! She didn't, Fear. She hitched a ride at the end, sure, _but_ she didn't ever get help from the mindworkers, the little _twerps!_ "

Fear considered it, then shrugged and nodded to herself. Anger made a valid point. Fear hesitantly asked, "So did you like the movie?"

"Of course!" Anger said.

A small pause entered in, and Anger realized they didn't believe her.

"I'm being serious, guys! I liked it!"

"Alright, then..." mumbled Fear.

"If you say so..." added Joy.

"Okay..." said Disgust.

Sadness stood and stretched. "Well," he said, "my turn."

As Sadness stepped up to the front, Anger took her seat.

The little blue emotion adjusted his sweater then looked at the others. "I think that Inside Out was probably one of Pixar's Best films," he said. His arms began swinging as he spoke. "I think it had a lot of depth, a lot of _feeling_ , heh... heh..." He clapped his hands together, startling Fear. "But, still, I, uh... I... well, some parts were sad..."

He sniffed, then took some heavy breaths, and continued.

"I was crying when Bing-Bong died, yeah, but... but I didn't need to press a button _then_ , you know? Maybe it's 'cause he wasn't likeable enough to us all together, or maybe I just felt like Disgust did, that his farewell was a bit too talkative... but, really, that wasn't the saddest part."

He cleared his throat, and sucked in some tears.

"What was sadder, or - I guess - more impactful - was when Riley came back to her family, but I didn't feel the need to press anything then, either... It was so beautiful... So b-b... beautiful..."

Another deep breath.

"Right, but I wanted to talk about the sad parts. What was more sad than that? Well, uh... one of the more tear-jerking parts was, of course, when Joy was crying. I didn't..." he gulped, "I didn't make us cry... but I know _I_ cried... b-but that's not saying much, h-heh... Uh..."

Whipping out a tissue he had prepared, Sadness blew into his nose.

"I really felt for her there, and I know we did as a whole, too... Um... yeah..."

After quickly dabbing his eyes, the blue emotion crumpled up the tissue paper and chucked it into the wastebasket nearby. Then he looked right to his friends. One by one, he surveyed them, as if bracing himself for a storm. He took his deepest breath, and let it out, and then cleared his throat. "Keep it together, " he said to himself.

Then, to the others, "The saddest part wasn't near the end... For me, and for us as a whole... the only part that nearly made him cry was... was at the start. I had to press the teardrop button. I had to. We needed it... wh-when Riley was alone in class, all those eyes watching her as she broke down crying... I-I-I felt s-so-o sorry for her, that p-poor little girl... poor Riley..." his voice faltered, and he slowly began sobbing. "T-Th-thank you," he said, walking over to his seat, where Fear offered another tissue. He gladly accepted it, and his tear-stained eyes were dabbed dry as he watched Joy stand up and take his position.

Everyone felt a pang of tension. They weren't going to bring it up unless Joy brought it up, but all the others briefly considered what Joy and Disgust had gotten into, their bickering, the fight... the elevator...

But Joy didn't bring it up. He didn't even allude to it. He simply smiled, rolled back on his heels, and launched into his anti-rant.

"This movie was awesome, guys!" He said, his smile only adding to his glow, "I loved loved _loved_ everything about it! I loved the acting, I loved the story, Riley was a great character, Sadness's development was awesome, and - quite frankly - it was _funny!_ I, for one, had a good time!

"The best part is hard to pin down! I loved it all so much! Like the time when Joy and Sadness first met? _Hilarious!_ Or with-heh, with the gum commercial song? I don't know about you, but I loved it! It was great! Catchy and fun, that's what I have to say about that!"

He sighed, fighting back the urge to dance around the room in happiness as he thought about all the things he enjoyed.

"Ah, but I should focus! Focus, Joy, focus! Okay, well, this was a _fun_ movie! Remember when we watched the Lego Movie, and we felt like kids again? I had that feeling all over here, just pure child-like me the entire time! But there was one part that takes the cake... the..." he snorted, holding back a laugh, "Okay, hang on, let me try again... the..." he snorted again, paused, and held a hand up to the others. "H-Hold on, I gotta get a grip on myself..."

He spun around, doubled over, and fought back his giggles. After a few convulsions, he turned back to face the others.

"Alright, _anyway_ , uh... what was I gonna say?"

There was a pause as he stopped to think. Disgust almost said something, but Joy interrupted.

"Oh! Yes, right - the _funniest_ part was when the tower of boyfriends fell down... that... that was..." he couldn't hold it in. Like a volcano erupting, his laughter came tumbling out of him, and it took a full minute for the bubbly emotion to reel it in. "Hahahah! Heh, heh... whew! Alright..." he sighed, stifling one final giggle, "But... but I wanted to talk about how much the movie made me think... It made me think about... uh..." He slowly stopped, as if afraid to go on. His eyes darted around as he said, "The soundtrack was good. Y-Yeah! I really loved it! The whole soundtrack was just plain adorable!"

"Did you have something else to say?" Sadness asked.

"Uh... I forgot oh darn here Disgust why don't you go okay thanks!"

In the blinking of an eye, Joy had jumped into his chair and yanked Disgust out.

"Uh... alright..." the green emotion said, confused. He eyed Joy as he stepped out front, but the lightbulb's face was illegible. Disgust dismissed it. He'd talk to Joy about it later... or, rather, ask Sadness to talk to Joy, if something was bugging him. But, with that out of the way, Disgust pulled out a piece of paper he'd written on, and read from it.


	15. In Summation

"Inside Out," he began, "is an unforgettable movie, certainly. It touches the human mind on such a basic, intimate, fundamental level that it is already positioned to leave an impression on its audience. The average moviegoer will not leave the theater unchanged (even if the change is slight, nearly microscopic). This is because Inside Out is a film that provides introspection, or - at the very least - encourages it."

Fear twitched slightly at that, and Joy furrowed his brows in confusion. But the glowing emotion said nothing, so Disgust continued.

"I wish I could say it was flawless."

Joy nodded his head subtly. _'Okay,'_ he thought, _'Here comes the rant...'_ He groaned on the inside.

"I wish I could say that it had not a scratch on its surface." A chuckle came from Anger. "The animation is gorgeously rendered. The art style is phenomenal. The actors and actresses were all excellent. The plot was engaging, and the movie lends itself to emotional investment. But it's not perfect. Actually, I frequently found myself annoyed, irritated even. There were a plethora of groan-inducing moments."

Joy breathed in, and breathed out, and forced himself to shut his mouth.

"Bing Bong immediately comes to mind. I disliked that talkative pink elephant from the moment I laid eyes on him to the last wisp of him we saw. Yes, his death did impact the movie, and it impacted me. That doesn't change the fact that I found Bing Bong to be an irritating chatterbox. More times than not, I was yearning for him to shut up, to just shut up for five seconds. I'd tell you how often I wished the writers would have refrained from adding extra lines to a perfectly fine scene, but I'd lose count."

 _'Don't say a word. Don't say a word,'_ Joy kept thinking to himself. Faintly, he heard Anger whisper, "Amen," to Disgust's speech. The usually so happy emotion gritted his teeth and forced himself to smile as the green speaker kept talking.

"It's not just Bing Bong," Disgust said, "For every joke I laughed at, for every hilarious moment that at least made me chuckle (and there were plenty), there was a moment that ran on too long."

Joy repressed a scoff. If Disgust laughed so much, then he certainly missed it.

"When Bing Bong had vanished forever, the scene would have been perfect..." Disgust sighed, slouching his shoulders, "Were it not for the the ham-fisted, cheesy, forced line about taking Riley to the moon for him." He looked up, then looked Sadness in the eyes. Just as quickly, he looked over at Joy, then seemed to answer the protest that was itching the yellow feeling's tongue. "I do understand that's part of his character's fixation, and that that's where he was left off by Riley: planning to go to the moon. But quite frankly, I wasn't moved to tears. I was struck, of course, with the scene's poignancy, but that one last line was all it took to kill the mood for me (and our host, I might add). It took what would've otherwise been a breathtakingly emotional scene and ended it on the sappiest of notes. I won't disguise my contempt for that one tiny line."

He paused, as if surveying his peers to see if they were still with him, before saying, "Joy is another major offender."

Joy moved to protest before he felt Anger grab him and harshly mutter, "Riley's Joy, duh."

"Oh... oh, okay," the Film Geek's Joy replied.

Disgust continued, "Apart from her glaringly bright personality, she - too - was quite talkative. Now, I get that that's part of her character, that that's who she is... that doesn't make her less annoying to me. Her mouth just seemed to want to make its presence known a bit too frequently, a bit too much, and dialogue of hers ran on longer than needed far too often. Case in point: As she, Sadness, and Bing Bong were running from the allegedly horrifying Jangles, that glowstick turned to Sadness and said, 'Nothing like a good scare to wake you up!' I just... I-" Disgust rolled his eyes and groaned. "It irked me, okay?

"The scene's flow and pacing was good up until that point, but that one line was like a loose shoelace, and it made our host's moviegoing experience stumble a bit. To the writers, if they were listening to me, I'd say, 'I don't know if you know, but you've made the plan to scare Riley awake _very_ abundantly clear. You've firmly established that. Trust me, your audience does not consist of goldfish. Believe it or not, we understood what was happening through Joy's actions alone.'"

A faint smile crept up Disgust's face.

"I think that sums up my complaints: actions can so frequently speak louder than words, but it felt as though the writers half-missed this."

"Even Sadness, who - bless her - seemed to be our host's favorite or second favorite emotion in the movie, had one scene where I was mentally begging the screenwriters to magically transcend time and space, and rewrite the scene so that she (and Joy and Bing Bong, but mostly Sadness) would stop talking."

Disgust bitterly chuckled at that, and his eyes flickered over to Joy before looking back down at his paper.

"I'm referring - of course - to the 'Abstract Thought' sequence. The chaos on screen and the accompanying music was already assaulting my senses, giving me the appropriate sense of confusion and urgency, but Sadness's expositional yammering pushed it too far, and I became annoyed - really annoyed."

A nervous titter escaped Fear's mouth.

"Where would the harm have been in cutting back-and-forth between the inside of the Abstract Thought machine (where the trio were being processed) and the outside (where one could easily have the mind workers commenting to eachother about what was going on, or - better yet - have a computer screen explaining it all as it occurred)? I don't know, and - while I don't know the precise solution to my annoyance in that scene - It certainly could have been better with less talking."

Joy sighed in frustration. _'Just give it up,'_ he thought to himself, casting a forlorn glance at the lighbulbs, _'He'd never agree to it. Not in a million years.'_

Disgust either didn't notice or didn't care. "By the by, another complaint: the film's exposition was spot-on at times, nailing things and explaining concepts to the audience perfectly. At other times, though, it either missed the mark, clumsily fumbled it, or broke the 'show don't tell' rule (I'm looking at you, scene where Disgust commented during the hockey tryout and said 'It's like we don't learn anything.' Thanks for the confusing line)."

And with that, Disgust set the paper down...

...and picked another one up. He cleared his throat and continued, Joy bracing himself for more petty complaints.

"I know it may seem like my grievances were huge, nitpicky, and endless. I know they seem to paint me in the light of one who loathes the film, despises it even, and - before you ask - the answer is, 'Yes, I do have many more complaints I'd love to be able to talk about.'"

Joy's mouth opened incredulously. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. Was Disgust really about to find even _more_ flaws to point out? For crying out loud! It's not as if perfection is what is needed in a movie!

But his next sentence shut down Joy's fears immediately.

"The fact remains that the other annoyances I have are either nitpicks that affect nothing _or_ that they were already covered under those first four complaints. There wasn't a single flaw I found, for example, in regards to the animation."

Joy found himself holding his breath in anticipation, now entirely eager to hear more of what Disgust had to say.

"Yes, let's bring that up again. Pixar has exceeded themselves with this one. I mean it." Normally, that would've been a statement drenched in sarcasm, but Disgust's eyes betrayed his sincerity. He began pacing, dropping the paper entirely. "Oh, sure, they've had well-made movies in the past, and - sure - the animation on some of their other films, such as Toy Story 3, was decidedly awesome..." he shrugged. "But Inside Out?" he scoffed happily (Joy didn't think it possible) "Inside Out has to take the cake. It is - hands down - _lightyears_ ahead of Pixar's other films in terms of eye candy and visual appeal."

Disgust got more animated as he continued, and began listing off the things that were technically sound about the movie's visuals. "From the colorful, vibrant HQ, to the eye-hooking subconscious halls, to the clever visual gags in Imagination Land, to (perhaps my favorite) the gorgeous, almost sacred-feeling darkness of the Memory Dump." He stopped his gushing momentarily to stare past his peers and out the window, far down into their own black memory dump below. "The sight of all those discarded memory orbs was breathtaking, especially when one or two would light up before vanishing into dust." He shook his head, and came back to reality, but his feet kept pacing. "And, as Joy looked down into the Memory Dump to watch Bing Bong's death, the lighting was nothing short of some of Pixar's best work. I hope they paid the art directors well, because whoever they are, they've more than earned their paychecks."

 _"Heck yes!"_ Joy felt like screaming, followed by giving Disgust a big high five. But he simply grinned and remained seated, trembling with unlooked-for eagerness.

"It's also fairly ironic," Disgust said to Joy, "That what might be one of Pixar's most imaginative films is also its most down-to-earth movie so far. Riley's struggles were real, relatable, and meaningful."

"Exactly!" Sadness chimed in, "That's why we didn't cry over Bing Bong's death, but we _did_ tear up when Riley cried in class."

"Yes! Yes!" Disgust said, pointing at Sadness, "That's what I'm saying, precisely! The fact that it wasn't a story of superheros and supervillains, or talking toys, or a fish on a quest to find his son made it much more visceral, real, and impactful. Guys..." he continued, "I felt for Riley, more than I did for the emotions. I felt more attached and invested in what happened to Riley than I did anyone else, and that is most certainly what you want in a main character. I would venture to say that she is the Pixar character I've cared the most about during the course of her film. I didn't even feel as attached to Andy's toys as they approached the incinerator in Toy Story 3. No, I didn't. We didn't. Our host didn't. But with Riley (and correct me if I'm wrong, Fear), our host was on the edge of his seat with worry, because that could be anyone."

"Ye-" Fear began.

"Riley could be any little kid we know, going through that!"

"Yes, ex-"

"She could be any of our friends (albeit way younger than them)! She could have been our little sister!"

"Exact-"

"Heck, in spite of the fact that our host is a twenty-something grown man, I can say for certain that she could have been him, the way we were feeling about things... the danger we felt for her... the worry, the emotional connection..."

Fear paused, to make sure Disgust was done, before saying, "Yes! You're absolutely right. I felt wayyy more tension when Riley was running away or going through troubles than when her emotions were in peril."

"When she was depressed about the move, I was, too," Sadness spoke up.

"When she was upset enough to run away," Anger added, "I felt her, I knew _exactly_ where she was coming from... but I was also screaming on the inside, begging her to stop!"

"When she was reunited with her parents, I could feel that group hug through the screen," Joy mumbled, nodding.

"Well spoken," Disgust said, "I think, for me, the most poignant moment... I think it was when she was crying in class. I remember that happening a handful of times to us (sometimes for more trivial reasons than others, admittedly), and that scene stung the most."

"I-I-I wanted to hug her and tell her it would be alright..." Sadness stuttered. His eyes glistened as he remembered the scene.

"Yes," Disgust said. "Pixar did good with making me _care_ about the main character. _Very_ good."

He paused and considered his next words carefully.

"I think there's nothing else for me to speak about. I had plenty of little things I enjoyed, too (Riley's dad not being a stereotypical Hollywood bumbler, Bing Bong's witty "I look like a lot of people" line (which somehow left us as the only audience member laughing), Sadness's little looks she gave to the Imaginary Boyfriend and Tragic Vampire Romance Island or whatever the heck it was called...), but I believe to go into detail with them would be repetitive and pointless, so I'll leave my review here:

"Inside Out was fantastic. I loved it. Was it annoying at times? Absolutely. Was it witty at others? Without a doubt. But you know what? There's something to be said for your skill as a filmmaker if the only complaints I have are small little inconsequential nitpicks, things that - subjective or not - do not affect much in terms of plot.

"Thank you."

Scattered clapping briefly echoed off HQ's walls as Disgust took his seat again. Then all was silent, save the low hum of the car engine as they drove on their way home. Nobody spoke a word. The emotions all quietly introspected, reflecting on what had happened in the past few hours. The mindworkers came and went, fixing the elevator and replacing the green memories, but not a word came from the emotions' mouths.

Eventually, as the minutes ticked by, Disgust felt inclined to speak.

"Joy..." he said, "What was it, by the way? What were you wanting to say?"

Joy froze up. He looked to see the others staring at him, all eyes inquisitive and full of curiosity. He nervously began stuttering some sort of excuse, but Disgust's unbelieving, arched eyebrow shut that down. Joy sighed, giving in. He quickly whispered something under his breath.

"What was that?" Sadness said, "Sorry, man, I didn't hear you..."

"I said... I-I said..." Joy took a deep breath, then, as he sighed, rapidly shot out, "wecouldwriteafanficreviewasawayofreviewingit."

Again, all was quiet.

"You wanna slow down there, motormouth?" Anger asked.

Joy gulped, then looked over to the ideas.

He hesitated, then stood, feeling exposed and naked. He slowly walked over and grabbed one of the ideas from the shelf.

He spun around and chucked it at Disgust, who barely caught it. The green emotion looked into the bulb and asked, "Joy, is this..."

Joy nodded, "Yeah. I know, I know, it's stupid. We'd be stooping down to the level of... of..." he gestured with his hands, unsure of how to articulate his feelings, then just gave up with another sigh.

"What is it?" Fear asked inquisitively.

"Fanfiction," said Disgust, not taking his eyes off the lightbulb. Ignoring a scandalized gasp of horror from Fear, he locked gazes with Joy, "You want us to write a fanfic review... right?"

Joy nodded.

"But not just any fanfic... You want to write one starring us..." Disgust began tossing the lightbulb back and forth, as if weighing its contents.

Again, Joy nodded.

"In spite of how much we hate self-inserts, most OC's, and almost all fanfiction we find..."

Once more, Joy nodded. "Yes," he said, "Yeah, that's the gist of it."

Disgust looked around at the others, then back to Joy. Joy's eyes were worried, anticipating the rebuke that was sure to come. But it didn't, and Joy's face changed to surprise. In one fluid motion, Disgust put the lightbulb into the console and smiled faintly.


End file.
